Ukrainian sappers prepare for counteroffensive with demining along contact line – The Washington Post
As part of preparations for a counteroffensive, Ukrainian sappers are demining areas on the contact line. All manipulations take place at night and manually so as not to reveal the likely positions from where the attack will take place.
The Washington Post writes about it.
What is the problem?
At the beginning of September, the Ukrainian Defense Forces began to liberate the Kharkiv and Kherson regions. As a result, Ukrainian defenders in the Kharkiv region went to the border with Russia, and in the south, they liberated the Mykolaiv region, except for Kinburn Spit, as well as part of the Kherson region, together with the regional center.
However, Ukraine's armed forces were forced to suspend the offensive to save the soldiers' lives due to the lack of military equipment and aircraft.
For obvious reasons, Ukraine has installed thousands of mines along the front line.
What is the solution?
Now, to advance into the occupied territory, the Defense Forces need to get rid of them.
The 42-year-old commander of the engineering division with the call sign Klimat told reporters that such work has been going on for several weeks.
How does it work?
He highlighted that once the pathway has been opened, directional signs will be erected at specific locations, some of which will be accompanied by lightning, indicating the route to the Russian-held positions.
However, demining controlled territories is only the first stage because Russia also mined the approaches to its positions.
WP describes the defense system of the Russians in the Zaporizhzhia region, which often appears in conversations about the counteroffensive. If Ukraine successfully liberates its territories in this region, it will be able to block the land corridor to Crimea.
The Kremlin, trying to keep the occupied territories in Zaporizhzhia, has turned the vast expanses of agricultural land into a fortress with a network of trenches and other obstacles that can be seen even from space.
The Russians did everything to slow down a potential counteroffensive of the Ukrainian army.
"Russia has created a massive system of engineering barriers, which are a serious obstacle to the mobility of troops. The Russians lay mines according to the scheme: one line of anti-tank mines, a line of anti-personnel mines next to trap mines, and then another line of anti-tank mines," said Colonel Serhiy Matveychuk from the management of engineering forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
He added that anti-tank mines can be detected with the help of drones, but the situation with anti-personnel mines is more complicated.
Once the Ukrainians have passed their own lines, they will need to break through the Russian minefields, and that requires greater speed.
In theory, the mines can be detonated with artillery fire, but the military says this does not guarantee that all of them have been destroyed.
A more modern method is using special equipment designed to penetrate this type of defense. These are mechanized demining equipment, linear charges, and engineering tanks.
Ukraine has its own demining equipment, such as the Soviet-developed UR-77 Meteorite. At the same time, several modern engineering tanks were also sent by Western partners, in particular the Leopard 2R anti-mine tanks, which are a modification of the famous German battle tank.
Matveychuk notes that the Leopard 2R can not only clear mines but also repel other types of obstacles, such as fences and embankments.
But the best option for this job is the M1150 amphibious assault vehicle based on the chassis of the American M1 Abrams battle tank. It should be noted that Kyiv appealed to Washington regarding this equipment, but it is currently not supplied.
Matveychuk called it "problematic" that the Ukrainian army lacks engineering tanks and other similar means.
"Despite the significant amount of weapons provided to Ukraine to repel the attack of the aggressor, the problem is the provision of engineering units with engineering tanks and other equipment," he said in a comment to the publication.
As WP writes, if Ukrainian forces find a way through the minefields, they will need to further apply a combined military strategy for a quick breakthrough. And then, in case of a successful breakthrough, Ukrainian sappers will return to work again, mining territories along the front line.
Read also – Two children in Kherson region seriously injured in explosion of unknown object
Ukrainian NGO Come Back Alive leads life-saving fundraiser to demine Ukraine
