The Ukrainian military says it is stepping up the training and deployment of engineering battalions capable of dealing with the density of Russian minefields and other defensive fortifications.
The commander of the military’s Support Forces, Brigadier General Dmytro Hereha, told a briefing Saturday that “the enemy has set up a multi-echelon system of engineering barriers in the occupied territories, consisting of several strips of 10 to 40 km each, and their density is quite high.”
Anti-tank minefields, anti-tank ditches, concrete pyramids (the so-called “dragon’s teeth”) and wire obstacles were among the obstacles, he said, and “the enemy insidiously uses mines, including in such a way that they cannot be removed.”
Hereha said that “to overcome such obstacles, a significant number of engineering and sapper units are needed,” but the quantity of special engineering equipment “is not enough [now] for such a number of obstacles.”
He said five engineer battalions have been formed and about 200 personnel had been trained abroad. A further 150 were receiving training outside Ukraine.
“The engineering units received up to 100 units of special equipment from partner countries as material and technical assistance to make passages in explosive and non-explosive barriers,” Hereha said.
The density of minefields along the front lines in the south has been a significant impediment for the Ukrainians over the past two months. A senior Ukrainian official said last week that in some areas there were as many as three mines per square meter.