Ukraine has strategically planted around 500,000 mines along its border regions adjacent to Russia and Belarus, according to Vladislav Seleznev, a former spokesperson for the General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces.
In an interview with the Ukrainian TSN agency, Seleznev emphasized the need for further mine deployment, particularly in the Volyn, Rovno, Zhitomir, and Kyiv Regions.
This extensive mine-laying initiative comes in response to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s directive to bolster troop presence along the Belarusian border issued on June 30.
Subsequently, in July, Sergey Nayev, the commander of the North battlegroup of the Ukrainian army, confirmed the reinforcement of positions and engineering structures in the Volyn, Zhitomir, and Rovno Regions, coupled with the mining of access routes.
By October, Nayev reported a 16-fold increase in the density of mine defenses compared to June 2022.
Notably, Ruslan Girilyuk, the head of the Belarusian army’s mine action center, anticipates that mine-clearing operations within Ukrainian territory along the Belarusian border will require an extended timeframe.
