2023-08-05 20:10:00
Ukrainians will raise more military engineering units to deal with Russian mines
The Ukrainian military says it is stepping up the training and deployment of engineering battalions capable of dealing with the density of Russian minefields and other defensive fortifications.
Army Support Forces commander Brigadier General Dmytro Hereha told a briefing on Saturday that “the enemy has set up a multi-echelon engineering barrier system in the occupied territories, consisting of several strips of 10 40 km each, and their density is quite high”.
Anti-tank minefields, anti-tank ditches, concrete pyramids (so-called “dragon’s teeth”) and wire obstacles are among the obstacles, he said, and “the enemy uses mines insidiously, even in such a way that they cannot be remote”.
Hereha said that “to overcome such obstacles, a significant number of engineering units and sappers are needed”, but the amount of special engineering equipment “is not enough [ahora] for so many obstacles”.
He said that five engineering battalions have been formed and regarding 200 people have been trained abroad. Another 150 were receiving training outside of Ukraine.
“Engineering units received up to 100 special equipment units from partner countries such as material and technical assistance to make passages in explosive and non-explosive barriers,” Hereha said.
The density of the minefields along the front lines in the south has been a major impediment for the Ukrainians in the past two months. A senior Ukrainian official said last week that in some areas there were up to three mines per square meter.
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