“It's a hunt, pure and simple.” The Ukrainian sappers given the job of finding a way through Russian defences have to deal with around 1,500 mines per square kilometre
, which began to explode overhead. “You know where you are with mortars. With clusters you’re in one of two camps: lucky or unlucky.” Tsar escaped with shrapnel injuries in the soft tissue of his backside, from which he is recovering in the local hospital. Five tourniquets could not save his comrade Dima Shulgin, just 50 centimetres to his side. He died from bleeding the next day, aged 35.hinges on the work of its combat engineers.
The work could not be more dangerous. Much of it is done at dawn. The Ukrainians have night-vision goggles provided by Western partners and local volunteers, but the optics are not perfect. “A sapper’s main weapon is his eye,” says Sleepless. So the engineers move forwards in the early morning at a snail’s pace, eight to ten metres from each other, probing at 45 degrees until they hit metal.
Much of the Russian engineering work is crafty, reports Tsar. “You can stumble on a trip-wire that would cause an explosion right at the spot your group is following behind you.” But there were examples of shoddy workmanship, too. “Quite often they forget to put a detonator in, or they short-circuit wires.”
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