usa most likely uses so-called “butterfly mines” in eastern Ukraine capable of causing widespread civilian casualties, UK Defense chiefs claimed that Monday.
In the latest information update, the Department of Defense warned Vladimir Putin‘s troops were probably deploying anti-personnel mines to “promote freedom of movement along the defense lines in the Donbas”.
Defense chiefs said they could cause widespread casualties among both the military and local residents.
“In Donetsk and Kramatorsk, Russia most likely tried to use PFM-1 and PFM-15 dispersed anti-personal mines,” they claimed.
Commonly referred to as the ‘butterfly mine’, the PFM-1 series are highly controversial, random weapons
“PFM-1s were used with devastating effect in the Soviet-Afghan war, where they reportedly mutilated large numbers of children who mistook them for toys.
“It is very likely that the Soviet-era stock used by Russia will have deteriorated over time and is now highly unreliable and unpredictable.
A taxi drives on a road damaged by shrapnel from a rocket attack in May in Sloviansk, Donetsk region
/ AP“This poses a threat to both the local population and humanitarian demining operations.”
Also known as green parrot mines, PFMs can be deployed from mortars, helicopters and airplanes and glide to the ground without exploding.
Vladimir Putin’s forces are seeking full control of the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine, where pro-Moscow separatists seized territory after the Kremlin annexed Crimea to the south in 2014.
Russian forces on Sunday stepped up their attacks north and northwest of the Donetsk city of Donbas, the Ukrainian army said. The Russians attacked Ukrainian positions near the heavily fortified settlements of Piski and Avdiivka, as well as shelled other sites in the Donetsk region, it said.
However, Kiev said Ukrainian soldiers were “holding tight to the defenses” and “inflicting losses on the enemy”.
The UK’s warning came when UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called for international inspectors to be allowed access to the Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant, after Ukraine and Russia exchanged allegations over the weekend over the shelling of Europe’s largest nuclear power plant.
“Any attack on a nuclear power plant is suicide,” Guterres said at a news conference in Japan on Monday, after attending the Hiroshima peace commemoration ceremony to commemorate the 77th anniversary of the world’s first atomic bomb.
Destroyed tanks and civilian vehicles caught in heavy fighting are gathered at a compound in Mariupol
/ APUkraine said renewed Russian shelling on Saturday damaged three radiation sensors and injured an employee of the Zaporizhzhya power plant, the second hit in consecutive days at the site.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky accused Russia of “nuclear terror” that justified more international sanctions, this time against Moscow’s nuclear sector.
“There is no country in the world that can feel safe if a terrorist state is shelling a nuclear power plant,” Zelensky said in a televised address on Sunday.
Russian troops seized the plant in southeastern Ukraine in early March, but the plant is still run by Ukrainian engineers.
The area’s Russian-installed authority said Ukrainian forces hit the site with a multiple rocket launcher, damaging administrative buildings and an area near a storage facility. The Russian embassy in Washington also released a statement detailing the damage.
Events at the Zaporizhzhya site — where Kiev claimed Russia hit an electricity cable on Friday — has alarmed the world.
Mr Guterres said the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) needed access to the plant.
“We fully support the IAEA in all its efforts to create the conditions for plant stabilization,” said Mr Guterres.
IAEA chief Rafael Mariano Grossi warned on Saturday that the latest attack “underlines the very real risk of nuclear disaster”.
Elsewhere, a deal to unblock Ukraine’s food exports and reduce global shortages gained momentum as four more ships left Ukraine’s Black Sea ports as the first cargo ship docked since Russia’s February 24 invasion.
The four departing ships had nearly 170,000 tons of corn and other food. They sailed under a deal brokered by the United Nations and Turkey to try to help alleviate the rising global food prices caused by the war.