Mine clearance. Donetsk. (RIA.) We
take an unusual step as we publish the following piece by Eva Bartlett,
the perspicacious Canadian correspondent whose practice it is to report
from “the other side.” The Scrum does not
customarily pick up pieces from other publications and reproduce them in
its pages. We take this unusual step because it is an unusual time. We
consider it halfway to a public service to offer our readers Ms.
Bartlett’s sobering, eyewitness report from Donetsk City.
It
is becoming increasingly clear that the AFU, the Armed Forces of
Ukraine, is losing its fight against Russian forces in an ever-swifter
slide toward defeat. We detect a mounting desperation, although the
reporting of mainstream correspondents is so poor, especially when
considered next to Ms. Barlett’s—indeed, so thoroughly dedicated to the
propaganda project the regimes in Kiev and Washington share—that little
about this war is clear.
Amnesty
International has just issued a report asserting that the AFU, as we
have heard numerous times over the months, uses civilian locations as
cover. We are asked to believe that Russian forces shelled a detention
camp wherein they hold captured Ukrainians. As we speak, we are asked to
believe Russians are shelling a nuclear power plant their own troops
appear to be guarding. The information war grows to unmanageable
proportions.
Ms.
Bartlett’s report seems to us not only to expose the shocking lengths
to which the AFU has gone in Donetsk City as its position grows more
desperate; she also casts a sharp beam of light on how numerous of the
AFU’s other acts are reported—or not.
Eva
Bartlett has distinguished herself in the course of reporting many
stories, not least from Palestinian territories. She has done so again
in the piece that follows, and we commend her for this work. The piece
originally appeared in RT.
—P. L.
The West is silent as Ukraine targets civilians in Donetsk using banned ‘butterfly’ mines.
The use of PFM-1 explosives against civilians is prohibited by the Geneva Conventions—but this evidently isn’t stopping Ukraine.
Eva Bartlett
8 AUGUST—On Saturday 30 July, just after 9 pm, thunderous explosions rocked central Donetsk. Shortly after, there were announcements that air defense had shot down Ukrainian-fired missiles containing “Butterfly” (or “Petal”)
mines. Given that over 300 of these explosives. are packed into each of
the Ukrainian-fired rockets, central Donetsk could literally become a
minefield if they successfully landed.
Social
media and Telegram warnings urged residents to stay inside, to wait for
Emergency Services to clear the streets and sidewalks – which they
began doing during the night. But come daylight, untold numbers of these
tiny devices still remained. More warnings were issued to stay at home –
better to be late for work than lose a leg. Residents that absolutely
have to go out are advised to keep their eyes down to watch where they
step, avoid grassy areas, and walk extremely carefully.
They look as innocent as autumn leaves. (© Eva Bartlett.)
While
Ukraine has been using these mines on Donbass for many months, in
recent days, they have intensely bombarded neighbourhoods with them.
Initially targeted were the hard-hit districts of Kievskiy in the north,
Kirovsky in the southwest, and Kuibyshevkiy in the west. But as of
Saturday night, Ukraine hammered central Donetsk with them.
And
now, walking in the city center is a nightmare, one I had to endure to
document how widespread these mines are here: in central streets and
walkways, near apartments, in parks...
Difficult to spot, easy to trigger.
As
it turns out, the ‘petals’ are not only widespread but often very
difficult to spot – even if warning signs have been placed right next to
them. Their small shape and dull color blends in with the surroundings
and if you aren’t actively looking at the spot they’re in, you could
easily miss them.
When walking, you learn to avoid any objects that could be covering a mine, and tread only on bare streets or sidewalks.
The
first bunch of mines I saw were circled in chalk, a warning sign placed
in front to keep cars from driving over them, and people from stepping
on them. This was on a central Donetsk street, a residential area with
shops and a park nearby. The entire area was littered with the ‘petals’.
DPR sappers worked methodically, clearing area by area. But, given that
hundreds of the mines were dropped all over the city, this is
painstaking work.
Near some apartment blocks, numerous mines had been found and warning signs put out: “danger, mines,” it said by the tiny explosive circled with chalk or a tire or whatever was available to draw the eye to its presence.
‘Caution, mines!’ Donetsk. (© Eva Bartlett.) But,
on many occasions, looking at the area designated as containing a mine,
it took me a good while to actually see it. Now imagine if there were
no signs at all ... a bloodbath for civilians, and animals too, since it
doesn’t take significant weight to set them off.
Butterfly mine basics.
Around the size of an average lighter, the ‘petals’ are tiny but still very powerful. A clip shared on
Telegram illustrates this: A soldier chucks a tire at one of the mines,
and the tire is flung high in the air from the blast. It doesn’t take a
powerful imagination to estimate what would happen if a person stepped
foot on one of them. The explosives are placed via remote delivery
methods – meaning they can be spread by mortar, missile, or artillery,
dropped by helicopters and planes.
According
to DPR Emergency services, Ukraine is using Hurricane MLRS-fired
rockets to spread the mines. Each contains 12 cluster munitions, each
cluster has 26 mines inside. So each bomb has 312. The cluster explodes
in the air, disseminating them widely, scattering in different
directions. Their butterfly-like design enables them to glide and land
without exploding, usually. Then they lie in wait for someone with bad
luck to step on them.
Some
of these anti-personnel mines have a self-destruct timer. Others,
including the ones Ukraine is firing, have a years-long shelf life. They
do pretty much no damage to military vehicles, and as such their use in
Donbass is insidious – deliberately targeting civilians, to leave them
maimed.
On
July 30, in a densely-inhabited working-class district of western
Donetsk, in a field with garden plots for nearby apartment residents, I
saw the same nefarious mines. Originally scattered, they had been
collected and awaited destruction by DPR Emergency Services.
In
the large courtyard of an apartment complex, I watched from a safe
distance as Emergency Services timer-detonated eight mines they had
found around the grounds. The day prior, they destroyed 26. Another 150
were located and destroyed using a radio-controlled minesweeper. But there remains much to be done to restore the streets and courtyards to safety.
Since the mines were scattered on Saturday evening, the DPR Representative Office at the JCCC has created an interactive map
showing the areas most contaminated by the mines, giving residents a
general warning of which areas to avoid while walking or driving in.
While some cars have been lucky enough to only have a tire blown out,
were the mine to detonate near the gas tank, the entire vehicle could
explode.
Multiple
civilians have been killed by the mines since they were scattered over
Donetsk, and, even now, wounded civilians are still coming to the city’s
hospitals. According to Vadim Onoprienko, the deputy director of a
trauma surgery center, ten amputations have been performed over the last
week – victims of Saturday’s mines and ones that had been dropped
earlier, one of whom was an 83-year-old man.
All evidence points to Ukraine.
Pro-Ukrainian
commentators are, unsurprisingly, blaming Russia. Journalists claiming
to care about civilians are perpetuating Ukrainian propaganda saying
that Moscow’s forces are scattering the mines
over civilian areas, nevermind the fact that these territories are
controlled by Russia’s allies. Among them is the would-be war hero Malcolm Nance, who temporarily abandoned his job as a notoriously anti-Russian MSNBC analyst to apparently actually fight the Russians in Ukraine.
This
is the kind of projection I have seen ad nauseam when reporting from
Syria and dealing with the Western propaganda there. Ukrainian
nationalists openly admit they do not see the Donbass people as human
and encourage their murder. Ukraine has been killing and maiming
civilians in the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republic for over eight
years, including firing cluster munitions into the heart of cities,
targeting hospitals, markets, schools and busy streets. Given all of
this, scattering butterfly mines over Donetsk is hardly surprising. It’s
criminal, but not surprising.
One argument used by pro-Ukrainian commentators is that Kiev has been destroying these mines under the Anti-Personnel Mine Ban Convention, which it signed in 1999. However, out of the six million such mines Ukraine initially declared in its possession, only two million have reportedly been destroyed as of 2018.