By Galina Korol | 2024-07-25

KYIV -- More than 1,000 Ukrainian civilians have been injured -- including 297 killed -- by explosive devices that Russian occupying troops have scattered around Ukraine since the beginning of the full-scale war.

The casualties include many children.

"The [Security Service of Ukraine (SBU)] is preparing a large body of evidence that demonstrates the deliberate use by Russia of antipersonnel mines against Ukraine's civilian population. This is a premeditated violation of international law and the laws and customs of war," the SBU said in a statement July 12.

"The most cases of the Russians using such booby traps against the civilian population have been documented in Donetsk and Kharkiv provinces," it added.

Prohibited mines

Antipersonnel mines are banned under the Ottawa Treaty of 1997, which Ukraine signed.

The mines do not deliver any tactical results on the battlefield, yet they pose a major danger to civilians, international specialists concluded.

"It is very unfortunate -- primarily for Ukrainian civilians -- that Russia is not a signatory to this treaty," said Tymur Pistriuha, executive director of the Ukrainian Deminers Association.

"Russia is not just actively using antipersonnel mines but is also actively using more of them," he told Kontur.

According to the SBU, Russian soldiers are deploying several types of mines, including the following:

(1) the PMN-2, a pressure-activated munition that often tears off a limb of someone who steps on it;

(2) the OZM-72, a bounding circular-impact munition nicknamed the "frog mine" because when tripped it "jumps" nearly 1 meter into the air and disperses fragments in a 25-meter radius;

(3) the MON-25, a directional mine banned by the Ottawa Treaty;

(4) and the PFM-1 mine, another pressure-activated munition commonly known as Lepestok ("petal"), Butterfly or Green Parrot.

"The PFM-1 ... looks like a flower petal, and depending on the season, it might be green -- like now, in the summer -- or brown in the fall," Pistriuha said. "It's very hard to spot ... Sadly, it's causing great harm to civilians."

Russia's use of antipersonnel mines confirms that Moscow aims to kill as many Ukrainian civilians as possible, analysts say.

The Geneva Conventions and other rules of war mandate that "if one side's troops withdraw or flee, as the Russians have done ... they must leave records of minefields," said Pistriuha.

"They've already left territories -- such as in Kyiv, Chernihiv and Suny provinces and parts of Kharkiv and Kherson provinces -- but as far as I know, not a single record was handed over," he said.

The Russians "mined everything haphazardly, not systematically, not following sappers' methods," he said.

Dangerous 'gifts'

"These bastards hold nothing sacred," said Yaroslav Kuts, a lawyer.

In the early days of the war, Kuts enlisted in the territorial defense force for Irpin, Kyiv province. Irpin was under Russian occupation for three weeks, until Ukrainian troops drove them out on March 28, 2022.

The invaders left behind great devastation and many civilians' corpses along with dangerous "gifts" for returning residents, Kuts told Kontur.

Clearing out of booby traps is still proceeding, he said.

"There were different kinds of traps. I personally came across ordinary tripwires. The Russians had hung them on wicket gates and on front doors, sheds, garages and so on," Kuts said.

They frequently left behind booby-trapped "plush toys ... like teddy bears or stuffed rabbits" in their former bedding, he said. "The biggest traps were inside them or under them."

"We came across butterfly mines, and I personally saw F-1 grenades," he added.

The Russians arranged everything "so that whoever threw out all the trash abandoned by the Rashists would be blown up," Kuts said, using a derogatory term for Russian troops.

The Russians additionally used dead animals as decoys to lure civilians, he said.

"At the back [of one house], there was a window and a dead cat lying on the windowsill. Anyone would try to move the cat," remembered Kuts.

Fortunately the Ukrainian forces had veterans of the 2014–2018 Anti-Terrorist Operation in eastern Ukraine, he said.

"They [the veterans] didn't move the cat but rather tied some string on it, and we retreated around the corner of the house. They pulled on the tail, and there was a boom because there was an F-1 grenade under the cat."

"And the car that was standing in the courtyard was also mined, and the keys to it were lying right on the hood. Then in the middle of the house, between the front door and the rooms, there was a tripwire with a grenade hanging on it," said Kuts.

Such traps were intended for residents who might return home before troops inspected them, he said.

'They left surprises behind'

"We came by with a convoy on April 7, 2022, and I was so naive I took along a small pail, rags and cleaning supplies," said Svitlana Poklad, the wife of Ihor Poklad, a composer. "But when I went in, I started sobbing because I had no idea what to do."

Svitlana, Ihor and Svitlana's mother spent 18 days of the occupation in their family house in Vorzel, Kyiv province, before escaping with a volunteer's help.

Soon after, the Russians arrived.

"There are only five houses on our street," Poklad told Kontur. "During the occupation, these houses held the [local] headquarters of the FSB [Russian Federal Security Service] and the Pskov air assault [unit]. Officers lived in our house."

"They left surprises behind: three tripwires in the house," she said. "One was between the entryway and living room, while a mine was hidden behind a cupboard."

"The second tripwire was in my husband's office and hidden under a pile of our books, and it ran to the piano where my husband always worked. As I understand it, they extended a fishing line so that if someone opened the cover of the piano, they'd go to God right away."

"The third tripwire was in the basement," Poklad said.

She surely would have been killed "if not for military intelligence [personnel], who found all of this before I arrived," she said.

The SBU confirmed the accounts of Kontur's sources.

"When it comes to anything that concerns the civilian population, anything that concerns unjustifiable losses, anything that concerns potential damage or actual damage to any civilian infrastructure, civilian property and so on, liability lies first and foremost with the aggressor country whose troops are in the occupied territory," Kuts said.

"Here there's a threefold liability: for the subordinate who committed the act, his commander and the aggressor state. Consequently, they all must answer to an international tribunal," he said.