“The Pivotal Mission in Ukraine’s Counteroffensive: Hunting for Mines”
“Mines are proving one of the biggest challenges for Kyiv’s slow-moving counteroffensive”
“The Ukrainian soldiers set off in pitch black, stealing through shell-cratered fields to carry out one of the most important tasks of the counteroffensive—and one of the most dangerous.
Armed with a metal detector, a shovel and a grappling hook, the combat engineers—known as sappers—hunt for mines along the front line with Russian forces, while trying to remain undetected by the enemy nearby.
“You can’t afford to be nervous,” said a 49-year-old sapper with the call sign Fisherman who leads a group of 50 within Ukraine’s 68th Jaeger Brigade.
After an initial thrust using Western-donated tanks and other armored vehicles foundered in a Russian minefield in early June, Ukrainian forces turned to men like Fisherman to clear a way forward.”
“Another 2S4 Tyulpan 240mm self-propelled mortar was destroyed by the Ukrainian army with precision counter-battery fire in the city of #Donetsk.”
https://twitter.com/UAWeapons/status/1682024520683778048