With an immense arsenal of mines at their disposal, the Russians have landmined Ukrainian territory at an unprecedented rate, making it one of the largest minefields in the world. It’s estimated that approximately 170,000 square kilometers are now covered with anti-tank or anti-personnel landmines, which is about the size of Florida, or almost six times the surface area of Belgium. However, not all of them were laid by the Russians. “The Ukrainians [also] laid a lot of them before the war, especially in the Donbas,” an area where the two warring parties have been fighting since 2014, said a source from the French military.

Laid along Russian fortified lines, this network of mines is the dread of Ukrainian tanks, particularly those participating in the offensive going on since the beginning of June in the south of the country. A number of videos posted on Russian social media show Leopard 2 and Bradley infantry fighting tanks immobilized in the middle of fields, their tracks scattered all around them, a sign that they landed on mines.