The dam collapse on Tuesday displaced thousands of people and reshaped the war’s front lines, a day before the start of Ukraine’s counteroffensive to retake territory from Russian forces. Both sides laid thousands of mines in the run-up to the counterattack.
Russian and Ukrainian authorities warned of the risk. Residents on the Russia-controlled bank of the Dnieper River, downstream from the dam, should watch for displaced mines, Russian official Andrey Alekseenko wrote on Telegram. Mines and other explosives “drift along the Dnipro and spontaneously explode,” read a statement posted to Telegram by Ukraine’s national rescue service. “They are also washed ashore, which poses a great threat to the population.”
Andy Duncan, the International Committee of the Red Cross’s Kyiv-based weapons contamination coordinator, said that satellite imagery used by the organization showed that topsoil has been worn away by the force of the water, an indicator that mines had been washed downstream, creating new, unmarked minefields in previously unmined areas.
He likened the movement of mines to that of boulders picked up by an avalanche. “They’re not floating, they’re just being pushed by the sheer force of the water,” he said.
The deluge would have forced sand and silt to new areas, potentially covering newly deposited mines in the river’s estuaries or lower banks more deeply than they were originally embedded, making detection difficult.
Populations returning once the floods subside face “considerable risk,” Duncan said. Mines “may end up in areas that had no contamination previously. And more importantly, if we can’t see them because they’re buried under two meters of silt, how do we find them?”
Russian positions flooded by the collapse likely included ammunition stockpiled for months, according to Simon Schlegel, a senior analyst for the International Crisis Group, a think tank focused on conflict.
“When carried away by the water some of these explosives may detonate, contaminate the disaster zone or be washed into the Black Sea. This will make it dangerous to move in the area for soldiers and civilians alike, and probably for a long time,” he said.
After the dam collapse, videos shared on social media, which have not been verified independently, appeared to show underwater explosions sending up columns of steam.
The ICRC is in the process of using satellite imagery to determine where suspected minefields may have shifted.
More than 30 miles west of the dam, the Inhulets river swelled beyond its own heavily-mined banks. Towns around the river, once the conflict’s front line, were retaken by Ukraine in November after nine months of Russian occupation. In photos shared by HALO Trust, a global demining nonprofit, workers can be seen rushing to mark flooded minefields there.
A minefield in southern #Ukraine today following the breaching of the Nova Kakhovka dam. We are marking our #landmines as the waters rise and monitoring reports that mines are being moved by the water and detonating. pic.twitter.com/EULFCdBCxk
— The HALO Trust (@TheHALOTrust) June 6, 2023
Many minefields, along with the bridge that deminers use to access them from Snihurivka, a riverside village, are now completely submerged.
Jasmine Dann, HALO Trust’s regional manager for southern Ukraine, said the organization’s demining operations along the Inhulets river were at a standstill.
Demining teams in the region are finding anti-vehicle mines, antipersonnel mines and unexploded munitions.
Louise Vaughan, the organization’s head of media, said that civilians fleeing the floodwaters may have to traverse unfamiliar roads, many of which are still mined.
While locals may be familiar with mine placement along dirt roads or in fields, evacuees are not.
Vaughan compared the Kakhovka disaster to the February earthquake affecting Turkey and northern Syria. Syrians living in camps for internally displaced people were already dealing with minefields, but as people fled the earthquake, the danger increased.
In an area of Ukraine that continues to see gruesome accidents from mines, the delay means an increased risk of injury or death.
Many minefields overlap or border on agricultural fields. For local farmers, the cessation of demining operations halts the return to any semblance of normalcy.
Sandwiched between the harsh Ukrainian winter, when the ground is frozen, and the start of the agricultural season, spring is a critical period for demining efforts.
“We have farmers speaking to us every day about wanting to be able to get back and use these fields that we’re working on,” Dann said. “And so any delay in that delays them being able to get back to work.”
