A considerable portion of the military aid provided by Ukraine to the west is various landmines, or to be precise, anti-tank mines .
Pentagon has provided Ukraine with 5,000 RAAMS (Long-range Anti-Armor System) shells. This shell can be fired by NATO standard 155mm caliber artillery with a range of more than 17.5 kilometers. It is loaded with 9 small anti-tank mines. The mines use electromagnetic fuses, and some of them are also equipped with anti-jamming systems. If used in combination with anti-infantry mines, better results can be obtained.
RAAMS (Long-range Anti-Armor System) shell usage diagram
It is reported that the reason why the US government provides RAAMS (Long-range Anti-Armor System) shells to Ukraine is related to the AT2 mines previously provided by the German government to Ukraine: the mine-branch rockets fired with the " Himas " and M270 rocket launchers can load 28 AT2 anti-tank mines with a range of 38 kilometers, but this mine is relatively large and can be easily discovered.
German AT2 anti-tank mines
In comparison, RAAMS is relatively small and difficult to detect. One 155mm shell can load 9 RAAMS mines, and 5,000 shells are 45,000 mines.
In addition to using anti-tank mines in defense, the Ukrainian army also used a large number of anti-tank mines in attack, which is the so-called "offensive mine laying". Especially in the battles in Ijium and Liman, the Ukrainian army used rocket launcher to deploy mines remotely near the Russian army, blocking the Russian army's retreat roads, and forcing the Russian army to retreat according to the passages marked by the Ukrainian army. When the Russian army retreated after leaving the solid fortifications, they suffered intensive fire damage on the roads preset by the Ukrainian army.
DM22 anti-tank side mines provided by Germany require manual deployment of
Analysts believe that the United States and other countries provide these advanced anti-tank mines to Ukraine are related to the timely feedback from the Ukrainian army. These long-range anti-tank mines have played a good battlefield effect and providing more advanced anti-tank mines are likely to be related to the counterattack launched by the Ukrainian army. If it is just a defensive operation, more other models of anti-tank mines will be provided without the need to use special long-range mines.
Russian army also used a large number of landmines in the war, but the advanced models used fewer mines, most of which were old models, and the anti-infantry mines were used very much. The Ukrainian Ministry of Defense claimed that a large number of anti-infantry mines and various boomines were found in the areas where the Russian army withdrew; the so-called "Donetsk Republic" claimed that the Ukrainian army used rockets to attack Russian-controlled cities such as Donetsk . Ukraine denied the accusations and emphasized that this was a "fake flag operation" carried out by the Russian army and the "Donbasic militia."
