‘I didn’t realise I’d lost my leg’: Risks taken by Ukrainian soldiers to defuse mines and booby traps
For the members of the demining unit in Ukraine’s 35th marine brigade, every step is fraught with peril – every action is beset with risk – during a period that has been particularly dangerous.
As the Ukrainians press ahead with their summer offensive, the Russians have countered with Soviet-era tactics. They have laid millions and millions of landmines.
Territory and communities along the 1,000km (621 mile) frontier have been saturated with anti-personnel mines, anti-vehicle and anti-tank mines, and remotely-detonated mines.
Some mines are buried, others fired from rockets – some are “victim-activated” booby traps.
All are designed to maim or kill.
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Together they constitute what may be the world’s largest minefield and we were told by members of the 35th marine brigade that the Russians are clever when they use them.
Deminers ‘Zeus’ and ‘Constantine’ told us that they have discovered mines and booby traps hidden in gates, doors, cars, cellars and the magazines of automatic weapons. They have even defused booby traps attached to dead bodies.
We found the pair in the back garden of a bombed-out house in the village of Vremivka, just a few miles from the frontline.
One searched with a metal detector while the other stood guard with an automatic weapon.
After 10 minutes or so, the pair would switch.
It was something we tried to ask them about but the interview was interrupted by a series of colossal bangs. The Russians were targeting the area with bombs and rockets.
“They’re hitting us, the Russians,” said Zeus. “F***-you, Putin,” he added.
Discovering – and disarming landmines – is a hazardous business but people like Zeus and Constantine face an additional challenge. They have to carry out their duties while they are being shelled and shot at.
‘Zeus’
“Well, when we’re doing our work the enemy will attack us. The enemy fires at us with their mortars and tanks. But the deminers are the first to go in.”
As the Russians hunker down in their defensive positions, the Ukrainians have been sending in small groups of Ukrainian troops to assault their trenches.
In many cases, these “storming” units are led by the deminers who attempt to chart a path through the mines.
Ukrainian soldiers take big risks to find and defuse weapons
Currently, these missions are conducted on foot after advanced western weaponry, like Leopard tanks and Bradley fighting vehicles, were immobilised in the first two weeks of the counteroffensive.
American and British officials say that as much as 20% of the weaponry sent to the battlefield was destroyed in these engagements.
‘Constantine’
“It’s dangerous, isn’t it?” I asked Constantine.
“Of course. It’s (scary), nerves, but this is our work.”
“What are you wearing on your jacket?” I asked.
“This is my amulet,” he said, grabbing a small angel-shaped doll. “This angel always with me in the fight. In (my) work. I don’t remove it from my body chest. It was given (to me) by wife.”
We watched Zeus and Constantine tackle a TM 62 anti-tank mine that had been partially buried on a grassy verge in Vremivka.
The device, packed with nine kilograms of explosives, would knock a battle tank off its tracks. “If you are coming by car, it will be completely destroyed,” said Constantine. “Also, everybody inside.”
Worried that the Russians had hidden other munitions under – or around – the TM 62, the pair kept their distance, dragging the device into the road with a long rope.
After inspecting it, they took it to a nearby field where they could safely detonate it.
‘I couldn’t feel my leg – I thought I’d just torn it’
The threat had been dealt with – but the pair know that their missions don’t always go to plan.
Last October, Zeus stepped on a landmine as his unit tried to avoid an enemy tank in the region of Kherson.
The munition blew off his right foot and lower right leg. He now wears a camouflage-coloured prosthesis.
“I didn’t realise that I’d lost my leg. I couldn’t feel my leg – but I thought that I’d just torn it a little bit,” he said.
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Meet the deminers disposing of Russian mines on the frontline.
Read more:
What life is like in recaptured Ukrainian territory
Why things are not back to ‘normal’ for Russian border towns
In an interview that was devoid of self-pity, the 25-year-old said his only thought was about returning to his unit.
“What did you think when you saw your leg?” I asked.
“I said, give me a prosthesis, I’m going back to battle.”
“Really? You thought right, I’ll go back?
“I did and I came back after five months.”
“How did the unit greet you when you came back?” I asked.
“They were hugging me. Everyone was shocked because it was such a short period of time. You can’t tell that I’m on a prosthesis. They were all excited.”
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Latest developments in the Ukraine war explained
His story is a reminder that missions can – and do – go wrong.
Ukraine does not release casualty figures, but analysts think that thousands of Ukrainian personnel have been injured or killed by Russian mines.
Zeus is not looking back, however.
“It was hard at first (but) now I have an artificial leg. There are pros and cons of course, many pros, like no nails to cut, no pain, you can step on it, beat it. I can even shoot it,” he said, with a chuckle that turned into a hearty laugh.
Hamas’s armed group has claimed it has lost contact with two hostages as a result of Israel’s operations in Gaza – after it called on air deployments to be stopped for 24 hours.
In a statement, Hamas’s armed al-Qassam Brigades said it had demanded that Israel halt air sorties for 24 hours, starting at 6pm, in part of Gaza City, to remove the hostages from danger.
It comes a day before Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is due to meet US President Donald Trump and as the number of those killed in Gaza surpasses the 66,000 mark, according to the enclave’s Hamas-run health ministry.
Its figure does not differentiate between civilians and fighters.
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Volunteer nurse’s video diary of Gaza horrors
A total of 48 hostages are still being held captive by Hamas, the militant group which rules Gaza, with about 20 believed by Israel to still be alive. A total of 251 hostages were taken on 7 October 2023, when Hamas launched an unprecedented attack on Israel which killed 1,200 people.
Situation on the ground
In Gaza, a war-torn enclave where famine has been declared in some areas and where Israel has been accused of committing acts of genocide – which it has repeatedly denied – the almost two-year war raged on.
On Sunday, the number of those killed rose to at least 21 as five people were killed in an airstrike in the Al Naser area, local health authorities said, while medics reported 16 more deaths in strikes on houses in central Gaza.
The Civil Emergency Service in Gaza said late on Saturday that Israel had denied 73 requests, sent via international
organisations, to rescue injured Palestinians in Gaza City.
Israeli authorities had no immediate comment. The military earlier said forces were expanding operations in the city and
that five militants firing an anti-tank missile towards Israeli troops had been killed by the Israeli air force.
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‘We will get it done’
In Monday’s White House meeting, President Trump is expected to share a new 21-point proposal for an immediate ceasefire.
His proposal would include the release of all hostages within 48 hours and a gradual withdrawal of Israeli forces from the Palestinian enclave, according to three Arab officials briefed on the plan, the PA news agency reports.
A Hamas official said the group was briefed on the plan but has yet to receive an official offer from Egyptian and Qatari mediators. Hamas has said it is ready to “study any proposals positively and responsibly”.
Mr Trump, who has been one of Israel’s greatest allies, said on Sunday there is “a real chance for greatness in the Middle East”.
It is unclear, however, what Mr Trump was specifically referring to.
He said in a Truth Social post: “We have a real chance for Greatness in the Middle East. All are on board for something special, first time ever. We will get it done.”
On Friday – the same day a video of diplomats walking out on Mr Netanyahu during his address to the United Nations went viral – Mr Trump said he believed the US had reached a deal on easing fighting in Gaza, saying it “will get the hostages back” and “end the war”.
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Diplomats walk out as Israeli PM speaks at UN
“I think we maybe have a deal on Gaza, very close to a deal on Gaza,” the US president told reporters on the White House lawn as he was leaving to attend the Ryder Cup.
Mr Trump has repeatedly claimed an agreement to end the war was imminent, only for nothing to materialise.
Weeks ago, he said: “I think we’re going to have a deal on Gaza very soon.”
It was one sentence among the many words Donald Trump spoke this week that caught my attention.
Midway through a jaw-dropping news conference where he sensationally claimed to have “found an answer on autism”, he said: “Bobby (Kennedy) wants to be very careful with what he says, but I’m not so careful with what I say.”
The US president has gone from pushing the envelope to completely unfiltered.
Last Sunday, moments after Charlie Kirk‘s widow Erika had publicly forgiven her husband’s killer, Mr Trump told the congregation at his memorial service that he “hates his opponents”.
President Donald Trump embraces Charlie Kirk’s widow Erika. Pic: AP
Twenty-four hours later, he drew fierce rebuke from medical experts by linking the use of Tylenol (paracetamol) during pregnancy to increased risk of autism.
The president treats professional disapproval not as a liability but as evidence of authenticity, fuelling the aura that he is a challenger of conventions.
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‘Paracetamol use in pregnancy perfectly safe’
On Tuesday, he went to the United Nations, where his frustrations over a stalled escalator and teleprompter failure were the prelude to the most combative address.
“I’m really good at this stuff. Your countries are going to hell,” he told his audience, deriding Europe’s approach to immigration as a “failed experiment of open borders”.
Mr Trump addresses the UN General Assembly in New York. Pic: Reuters
Then came a U-turn on Ukraine, suggesting the country could win back all the land it has lost to Russia.
Most politicians would be punished for inconsistency, but Mr Trump recasts this as strategic genius – framing himself as dictating the terms.
It is hard to keep track when his expressed hopes for peace in Ukraine and Gaza are peppered with social media posts condemning the return of Jimmy Kimmel to late-night television.
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Trump’s major shift in Ukraine policy
Perhaps most striking of all is his reaction to the indictment of James Comey, the FBI director he fired during his first term.
In theory, this should raise questions about the president’s past conflicts with law enforcement, but he frames it as vindication, proof that his enemies fall while he survives.
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Ex-FBI chief: ‘Costs to standing up to Trump’
Mr Trump has spent much of his political career cultivating an image of a man above the normal consequences of politics, law or diplomacy, but he appears to feel more invincible than ever.
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From funerals to world summits, world peace to public health, he projects the same image: rules are for others.
It is the politics of the untouchable.
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