Russian forces mine occupied territories with all explosives accumulated since World War II

He said this on the Espreso TV channel. 

"For our units in the south, the main thing is to approach the enemy's positions. However, this is hampered by mining. For you to understand, I posted a photo of mines we collected in a 50x50 metre area. This photo shows that the pile of mines was almost waist-high, and this is in a small area. The Russian forces mine the occupied territories very densely," Kurbatov said.

The spokesman emphasised that mining of the occupied territories slows down the movement of Ukrainian military equipment

"No one in the world can imagine the scale the occupied territory of Ukraine is mined now. Even during World War II, there was no such dense mining. After all, they had been preparing for that war for over 10 years. And here in Ukraine we see everything that the USSR, and then Russia, accumulated after World War II. With all the mines that Russia has, it mines our territory. And this slows down the movement of our equipment," he added.

• On July 19, Russia lost more than two companies of soldiers and 15 pieces of military equipment in the Tavria sector. According to the General Staff, the Russian army has lost a total of 530 soldiers, 6 tanks and 33 UAVs over the day. 

• Since the beginning of the full-scale invasion, the Russian army has lost 240,690 soldiers in the war in Ukraine. On July 20, the Ukrainian Armed Forces successfully repelled Russian forces' attacks at the Kupiansk, Bakhmut and Avdiivka directions