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- Ukraine is finding Russian soldiers’ bodies turned into booby traps, a Ukrainian soldier told the BBC.
- Ukraine previously said Russia was mining peoples’ homes and putting explosives under dead bodies.
- Russia is also stacking mines on top of each other and using tripwires, the BBC reported.
A Ukrainian sapper said his unit frequently finds the bodies of Russian soldiers that have been turned into booby traps in territory retaken from Russia.
Denys, a Ukrainian engineer tasked with dealing with the explosives laid by Russian forces, told the BBC that finding bodies like these has now become the norm.
Russia has laid deep defenses in its efforts to stop Ukraine’s counteroffensive, including extensive minefields, booby-trapped fields, and tripwires.
Denys did not say specifically what kinds of traps are found on the soldiers’ bodies.
Russia has also been stacking mines, including putting anti-tank mines on top of each other and placing anti-personnel mines on top of vehicle mines, to create bigger explosions, the BBC reported.
Ukrainian military engineers previously said Russian forces left mines everywhere in territory they previously occupied, including in everyday household objects like refrigerators, toys, and children’s books.
Ukraine said last year that Russia had also left explosives in car trunks, in washing machines, and under dead bodies.
Denys, who spoke to the BBC from a military base in Poland, where he was receiving training from British military bomb disposal teams, said Ukraine needs more sappers to clear the mines, echoing calls made by others.
He said he was grateful for the training, but said Ukraine still needs more help from its allies.
Russia has laid so many mines, he said, that even if the war stopped tomorrow it would take hundreds of years to get rid of the mines Russia has already laid.
Last month, Ukraine’s then-defense minister said his nation was “the most heavily mined country in the world.”
Another sapper, Ihor, told the BBC that 10 members of his team had been killed and that they often work at night because they are targeted by Russian artillery and small-arms fire.
Some Ukrainian soldiers said they risk their lives by taking mines apart by hand, while others are getting out of their tanks and progressing on foot because the minefields are so dense.
Yaroslav Galas, a major and the press officer with Ukraine’s 128th Separate Mountain Assault Transcarpathian Brigade, told Insider earlier this month that mines are the main factor slowing down Ukraine’s counteroffensive efforts.
“If it wasn’t down to mines, then our progress would be much, much better, much faster,” he said.
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