Preparation of the counter-offensive
Ukrainian engineers clear mines by hand at night
06/04/2023 10:09 am
The start of the Ukrainian counter-offensive against the Russian troops is expected any day. However, there are still a number of obstacles that need to be overcome. The “Washington Post” reports on nightly secret operations.
Ukraine is clearing numerous mines on the front line with Russia in preparation for a counteroffensive. The Washington Post reports, citing Ukrainian military circles. Like Russia, Ukraine has laid thousands of mines along its front, the paper writes. The task now was to remove the explosive devices without giving the Russian troops any indication of the area in which they wanted to break through.
For this reason, demining operations would be carried out at night. This is to prevent revealing possible positions from which the offensive is to be launched. Therefore, no heavy mine clearance equipment can be used. Instead, pioneers went to work at night, doing much of that work by hand.
The US newspaper quotes a commander of the 1st Armored Brigade as saying that work has been going on for weeks. However, the 42-year-old, whose combat name is “Klimat”, did not describe the exact locations or methods for deactivating the mines. As soon as a path was clear, signs would be put up to show the advancing troops the way. These signs are sometimes illuminated and turned away from the Russian positions.
Hour of the mine clearance tanks
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in an interview with the Wall Street Journal on Saturday that Ukraine was ready for the long-announced counter-offensive to liberate its territories from Russian occupation. Zelenskyi stressed that Ukraine would have liked to have some more weapons for the offensive against the Russian invasion, but could not wait months for their delivery. There has been speculation for months about the beginning of the offensive, but at times it was said in Kiev that the operation was already underway. A possible focus of a counter-offensive could be the area around Zaporizhia.
A colonel from Ukraine’s engineer troops told the Washington Post that Russia had created a “massive system of technical barriers”. These are intended to slow down and spatially limit a Ukrainian counterattack. In this way, Russia wants to make maximum use of its remaining reserves. Ukraine, in turn, relies on new equipment designed to breach these types of defenses, including specially modified vehicles based on the famous German Leopard 2 main battle tank.
Ukraine has its own minesweepers, such as the UR-77 Meteorit, a Soviet vehicle that uses the same chassis as the old 2S1 howitzer. Western nations have also supplied some modern technical tanks, including Leopard 2R mine clearance tanks from Finland. According to the Colonel, the M1150 Assault Breacher Vehicle, based on the US-made M1 Abrams Main Battle Tank, would be best suited for this mission. But that is not available to Ukraine.