From Afghanistan to Ukraine: Russia’s History of Landmine Warfare

For the past year and a half, Ukraine has been under relentless assault and total war by the Russian Federation. In Europe’s largest conventional invasion since World War Two, tens of thousands of troops have been killed on both sides, with untold civilian casualties in Ukraine that won’t be verified until Russian expulsion from the occupied territories.

During the ongoing Summer Ukrainian counteroffensive, one of the biggest obstacles the Ukrainian Armed Forces (ZSU) have faced is landmines. For a year and a half, Russian Forces have had the time to riddle the battlefield with deadly landmines that have maimed not only ZSU but also numerous civilians.

The sheer number of landmines will be a problem for the Ukrainian army and its vast civilian population for years to come.

Russia’s Deadly History of Landmines

In the aftermath of the Soviet-Afghan War, the Red Army left hundreds of thousands of landmines to cover their retreat. The landmines were purposely dispersed without regard to human life to maximize casualties as much as possible.

According to the Mine Action Coordination Center of Afghanistan (MACCA), over 588 civilians have been killed by mines left behind by the Soviet Union in the past decade. A further 887 have been maimed and wounded by the deadly devices. Overall, 30,000 Afghans have been killed and injured by Soviet-made mines since the Russian withdrawal in 1989.

Chechnya has also been plagued by hundreds of thousands of mines, placed indiscriminately by Russian Forces during the two Chechen Wars. In 2003, the International Campaign to Ban Landmines reported 5,695 people were killed and wounded by Russian mines in 2002. UNICEF has documented over 500,000 landmines scattered across the nation since the First Chechen War.

It will Take Years to Clear the Warzone of Landmines

Reflecting their battlefield tactics in Afghanistan and Chechnya, Russian Forces have heavily mined the occupied areas of Ukraine. The 1997 Mine Ban Treaty prohibits antipersonnel mines, but according to a report by Human Rights Watch, Russia has numerous uses for these mines in Ukraine.

Nevertheless, Russia is not a signatory of the mine treaty, which gives the Kremlin leeway to maim civilians and soldiers alike, regardless of international condemnation.

Close to 30% of Ukraine has already been littered with landmines in not just occupied territories in Donbas and the South but formerly occupied lands such as Kharkiv and Bucha, which was the scene of the most brutal massacre the war had seen thus far.

Landmines have become the biggest obstacle in Ukraine’s ongoing summer counteroffensive as the ZSU has to take precarious measures to protect their APCs, tanks, and troops. Antipersonnel mines aren’t the only danger in Ukraine, as anti-vehicle mines and booby traps on doors, windows, and grenades also have a scarring effect in the war today.

Mirroring the aftermath of Afghanistan and Chechnya, Ukraine will take years or even decades to clear their country from landmines—especially in the heavily occupied Donbas region, where Russian Forces have been for nearly ten years.

The Potential Economic And Global Effect

Landmines will hurt Kyiv’s post-war economy for years to come. Ukraine, which is a significant grain export country, will have farmers scarred from mines. In some cases, Ukrainian farmers have been maimed in mines during the wheat harvest.

Sea mines can also have a negative effect as they are a danger to both commercial vessels and regular fishing boats. Seaboard mines, floating adrift, can disrupt Ukraine’s global trade, especially with wheat, which could have a domino effect on countries that depend on the grain.

The United Nations has developed steps to help de-mine Ukraine, and the United States has allocated $89 million in aid to clear the country of landmines. The British NGO, HALO Trust, is also actively working to clear the fields of hazardous unexploded ordnance.

Clearing Ukraine of landmines is of utmost importance and must be enacted urgently, not just for military purposes but for socioeconomic and psychological effects. Civilians could accidentally set booby traps as they return to villages and cities carpet bombed, such as Mariupol, Bakhmut, and Severodonetsk. Ukrainian children could maim themselves in uncleared fields where they usually played before the war.

Landmines are not just a Ukrainian issue but a humanitarian concern. The world must work to avoid the catastrophic aftermaths of Afghanistan and Chechnya, in which some areas still have not been fully cleared to this day of mines, and the longer it takes to remove the deadly ordinance from Ukraine, the more the global economy could suffer the repercussions of it.