Ukraine is the most heavily mined country in the world, and demining efforts could take decades or even hundreds of years, The Washington Post reported on Saturday.
“The sheer quantity of ordnance in Ukraine is just unprecedented in the last 30 years. There’s nothing like it,” Greg Crowther, director of programs for the Mines Advisory Group, told the Post.
The report said about 30% of Ukraine, or 67,000 square miles, has been contaminated by mines and other ordnance and will require demining. The area is larger than the US state of Florida.
The situation will get worse as the US has provided Ukraine with cluster munitions, which the White House has said Ukrainian forces are already using. Cluster bombs spread small submunitions over large areas, and those that don’t explode can kill or maim civilians decades later.
According to UN numbers, between February 2022 and July 2023, 298 civilians in Ukraine were killed, and 632 were injured by mines and other ordnance. Both sides in the conflict have used anti-tank and anti-personnel mines. Anti-personnel mines are more hazardous to civilians because they require much less pressure to detonate.
Ukraine is a signatory to a treaty banning anti-personnel mines, but there’s evidence that Ukrainian forces have used them. The US and Russia are not signatories to the treaty, known as the Ottawa Treaty.
The US has provided Ukraine with two known types of mines, including the Remote Anti-Armor Mine System, which uses 155mm artillery and is designed to eventually self-destruct. The other type, M21 anti-tank mines, do not self-destruct and will be needed to be cleaned up.
Russia laid extensive minefields along the frontlines, leading to heavy Ukrainian armor losses in the first few weeks of Ukraine’s counteroffensive. Ukraine is relying on demining soldiers, known as sappers, to dismantle the minefields by hand.
The Post report said that some experts estimate clearing all of Ukraine’s contaminated areas would take the approximately 500 demining teams in the current operation 757 years to complete. The mine clearing will also come at a huge financial cost. The World Bank estimates that demining in Ukraine will cost $37.4 billion over the next 10 years.
What’s mine(d) is mine(d). What’s yours is negotiable
The neocons are so smart. How smart are they? They can demine Ukraine with their own teeth. …Okay, I shouldn’t have said that part out loud. I apologize. I should avoid sharing thoughts that bring me joy. (Sarcasm alert)
… sounds like a good jobs program for the neocons after the regime change.
LOL! That’s why I love you, man!
They made the mess. They should have to clean it up.
Never gets old! 😁
here i broke all of that down =
Ukraine is the most heavily mined country in the world – and will require demining. the area contaminated by mines and other ordnance is larger than the US state of Florida.
experts estimate clearing all of Ukraine’s contaminated areas would take the approximately 500 demining teams 757 years to complete.
it’s like a bad movie except you couldn’t make this sh*t up.
Thanks to Putin.
if Putin is responsible for the land mines then probably he shouldn’t have done that. i wonder what would the world over there be like today if Russia had not begun securing the separatist states from Kiev.
what are your thoughts on that Julio, do you think that Kiev would have continued to hand out candy and flowers over there?
Putin didn’t have to secure anyone. Just should’ve not asked the separatists to start a war against the UA government. Those separatists could’ve just walked over to Russia if they wanted to be part of Russia.
Putin could’ve repatriated them all for a small fraction of what this war has cost him.
oh, so if the people who spoke the Russian language did not like Kiev’s treatment of them then they should have abandoned their regions to Kiev and taken up residence in Russia where they would have been out of reach of Kiev? ok got it.
what do you Julio think Kiev would have done with those regions if that had happened?
Give it to Nuland or Sullivan.
What kind of question is that? You dont have to ask me that. Ask that yourself.
Your question is premised with a subtle assumption that Ukraine was committing Genocide which is the narrative the Kremlin has unsuccessfully tried to sell to West.
Did you bother asking yourself what happened to all those Ukrainians living in Crimea after Russia annexed it?
you are pretty good with the words Julio –
but i never assumed that Kiev was committing genocide much less said that Kiev was committing genocide –
hey Julio, the whole point of this is that the people living in Crimea are Russians and not Ukrainians and they made their own choice.
DJ,please get off the Putin shit,He is only defending his country. Biden and his pigs in the Congress can not say the same. Like everything in the US it is about the Benjamins
“The Post report said that some experts estimate clearing all of Ukraine’s contaminated areas would take the approximately 500 demining teams in the current operation 757 years to complete.”
Ah, those experts… exactly 757 years they say. Once US neocons push us into a catastrophic war with Russia, those mines will be the least of our concerns. Nuclear annihilation, nuclear winter, it’s what they’ve longed for all along.
Nuclear Winter. At the top of the Neocons best seller list.
All this fussin’ and fightin’ over land that ultimately nobody’s gonna want. As Spy always notes: You can’t make this sh*t up.
It’s almost as though Ukraine doesn’t really plan on taking all their territory back. Or they care about their own people as much as the US does.
That is a very f ing ignorant comment.
You definitely has never met a Ukrainian.
You have met many Russians though.
My grandparents were Russian and loved America and Israel. They were 50% right.
I don’t know any Russians or Ukrainians. My comment was about Ukraine seemingly not caring what weapons they use that will cause harm to their own citizens in the future. You know DU, cluster bombs and now mines. (Ukraine is a signatory to a treaty banning anti-personnel mines, but there’s evidence that Ukrainian forces have used them.) That is, if they plan on taking all their territory back. So in reality, your response to my comment was really the ignorant comment between the two. You just can’t face reality.
The US has provided Ukraine with two known types of mines, including the Remote Anti-Armor Mine System, which uses 155mm artillery and is designed to eventually self-destruct
Wow. Do these mines wait until no people are around before they self-destruct?
The mines dont wait. The units that employed them are required to mark the location for record and to later remove them before civilians return to their homes.
But I can’t speak for the other dozens of million of unmarked mines that Russia has placed all over and you dont beetch about.
You need a smack of reality in your life. you are as delusional as Trump.
So, troops remove mines that self destruct? Got it.
Yes Don, I must be in favor of Russian mines because I asked a sarcastic question about self-destructing mines. You just never stop with the attempt to label anyone who won’t join team Ukraine as pro-Russian. You’re a clown.
Demining by hand?
So it will take 500 teams over 700 years after the fighting stops to “demine” but those Ukrainians can slip in under the cover of darkness and remove enough to matter?
Politicians run such wonderful wars.
If Ukraine is further invaded by its neighbors, the demining will be a lot faster…!
Invaded by its neighbors?
The only invader in-the region is Russia. Dont get that confused.
Patience…! West in general and US in particular always back stabs all of its friends and the Zelboy is not an Exception…! Individuals like Noriega, Saddam Hossain and Khaddafi to name a few…!
Boy its a long list of the foreign leaders the US has killed or fucked. It goes for domestic leaders also.