Landmines, spare parts slowing down Ukraine’s counter offensive – Defense chief

 

NEW YORK – About two million landmines planted on Ukrainian territory are slowing the advance of Kiev’s counteroffensive, Fox News reported, citing former Ukrainian Defense Minister Andrey Zagorodnyuk.

“They [Ukrainian troops] are looking more carefully about where to move because we’re talking about approximately two million mines,” he said, as cited by the media outlet. “There’s intense mining in some areas,” Zagorodnyuk added.

According to the former defense chief, in some areas the mines are only a few meters apart; demining is highly complicated and requires considerable amounts of time. Mining has made the Ukrainian armed forces’ counteroffensive much more difficult.

The former Ukrainian defense minister also told Fox News that the Ukrainian army was facing issues maintaining Western-made military equipment because of spare parts shortages. He compared the situation to “a nightmare of its own,” admitting that Ukraine’s counteroffensive was facing major problems.

The Russian Defense Ministry said earlier that the Ukrainian armed forces had been making unsuccessful attempts at a counteroffensive since June 4. Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu said on July 11 that Ukraine had lost more than 26,000 troops since the start of the counteroffensive.

Russian President Vladimir Putin emphasized that the Ukrainian military had failed to achieve success in any area. Putin stated at a meeting with Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko in St. Petersburg on July 23 that Kiev’s counteroffensive had failed.