The Russian army has begun clearing mines from the Kursk Oblast, liberated from the Ukrainian Armed Forces, the Russian Defense Ministry announced.
The announcement states that the demining was carried out "with the aim of restoring socially important facilities and infrastructure necessary for the establishment of peaceful life and economic activity in the region following violent military operations."
“To organize the implementation of tasks to clear the liberated territory of Kursk Oblast, a representative office of the International Mine Countermeasures Center of the Military Engineering Academy was deployed. Military units of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation and subunits of engineering troops took part in the implementation of the tasks,” the ministry said.
The ministry noted that the sappers will have to carry out significant tasks as the Ukrainian Armed Forces use various types of ammunition during military operations, including foreign-made ones supplied by NATO countries.
“Engineering units discovered munitions prohibited by the Geneva Convention, including PFM-1 “Lepestok” cluster anti-personnel mines, which pose a deadly threat to civilians in liberated areas,” the announcement said.
It was also noted that the specificity of the tasks of clearing areas and objects from explosive objects in the liberated areas is the simultaneous implementation of works on demining residential buildings, adjacent property, agricultural lands and important life support facilities, such as gas pipelines, boiler rooms, power lines and communications, roads and bridge structures.
