Liberation of Staromayorske in Donetsk region took place on heavily mined territory - Defence Forces

Captain Valeriy Shershen, a spokesman for the Tauride Defence Forces, said this during a telethon, Censor.NET reports citing Glavkom.

"When our attack aircraft crossed the centre of the village of Staromayorske, to the southern outskirts, they faced total mining. The Russian forces mined everything possible, even our Special Forces specialists were puzzled, our engineers had a lot of work to do, and sappers resorted to various tricks when clearing mines," said Shershen.

He noted that there were many traps left by the Russian occupiers. The attack aircraft were advancing with special weapons to remove enemy tripwires and then detonate them.

"If they found a mine, they had to hit it with a long stick to make it explode. As a rule, anti-personnel mines are not touched, they are only marked because there may be auxiliary grenades under them," he said.

Shershen noted that Ukrainian engineers were unable to evacuate trophy equipment from Staromayorsk because of minefields.

"There are so-called "mine barriers" - blocking the road in the form of mines, it is impossible to go around them because of deep, wide craters from air bombs. In addition, the dirt roads have softened after the rains. In general, the situation is under control, however village is being shelled with artillery and mortars," he summed up.