Ukrainian soldiers walk down a road damaged by Russian shelling in Kharkiv Oblast. Wolfgang Schwan/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images
In northern Ukraine, Russian forces have dropped and abandoned “hundreds of thousands of dangerous objects,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Monday night, including mines and unexploded shells.
“At least several thousand such items are disposed of every day,” said Zelenskyy. “The occupiers left mines everywhere. In the houses they confiscated. Only on the streets, in the fields. They mined people’s property, mined cars, doors. They have consciously done everything possible to make returning to these areas after de-occupation as dangerous as possible.”
In Kharkiv, authorities are urging people to stay away from some neighborhoods in the eastern part of the city where mines are scattered across the streets. Lt. Col. Nikolay Ovcharuk, head of the state rescue service’s demining unit, said the plastic devices were PTM-1M mines deployed by Soviet troops in Afghanistan and detonated by timers.
Ukrainian officials have accused Russian forces of dropping “parachute bombs” over Kharkiv, and a resident, who gave his name as Sergey, told The Guardian that around 1am Monday morning we “heard some strange noises, something whistled and then everything fell. “
Zelenskyy said he believes Ukraine is now “one of the most mine-infested in the world” and considers it a war crime. Russian forces, he added, “have done everything possible to kill or maim as many of our people as possible, even when they were forced to withdraw from our country.” They wouldn’t have done it without the proper orders.”
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