Retreating Russian forces have mined the Oleksandrivka sector so heavily that only ground robots can move across parts of it, Serhii Kolesnychenko, a communications officer of the 148th Separate Zhytomyr Artillery Brigade of Ukraine's Air Assault Forces, says, according to UkrInform. This direction lies on the junction of the Donetsk, Dnipropetrovsk, and Zaporizhzhia oblasts.
As they give ground, Russian forces are turning it into a trap. They mine not only their old positions but the treelines, approaches, roads, and routes behind them, then lace the ground with FPV drones and remote strikes. The point is to slow whatever comes next.
Mines and drones seal the routes
What the Russians leave is not a classic minefield.
"Mining today is not limited to conventional minefields, which, in principle, are no longer used by anyone. Russia combines mining with remote strike capabilities," Kolesnychenko said.
Once Russian forces pull back, he said, the ground has to be inspected, demined, and cleared before it is safe.
Robots go where vehicles cannot
That leaves one kind of machine able to work the cleared-but-not-cleared ground.
"Here it is only about ground robotic systems, because neither a pickup nor a Bradley infantry fighting vehicle can get in there," Kolesnychenko explained.
Ukraine has been fielding unmanned ground vehicles for exactly this kind of task, running supply, casualty evacuation, and mine-clearing along routes too lethal for crews.
The advance pays for every kilometer
The mining is a deliberate brake, not a byproduct. The Russians try to leave behind a system of obstacles, Kolesnychenko said, meant to slow the Ukrainian advance and the logistics that must follow it.
He has also said Russian forces in the sector can barely use their own vehicles and weapons because of the density of Ukrainian FPV drones overhead, part of what has pushed them back in the first place.
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