This is made worse by the fact that the country that planted most of the mines has refused to provide maps or information for where the mines were planted. Seeing these deaths 30 years later is tragic, but also preventable in most cases.
With the case of Ukraine, the Russians apparently constructed a mine field the same size as Florida, and that is just one. There isn't going to be an easy way to clear it and I am sure the Russians aren't going to be helpful either.
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Last edited by FlamesAddiction; 07-25-2023 at 12:57 PM.
With the case of Ukraine, the Russians apparently constructed a mine field the same size as Florida, and that is just one. There isn't going to be an easy way to clear it and I am sure the Russians aren't going to be helpful either.
Given that Ukraine is between 3 and 4x the size of Florida, and that Russia has occupied about 1/5 of that territory for most of the war, I'd be skeptical of that claim.
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Given that Ukraine is between 3 and 4x the size of Florida, and that Russia has occupied about 1/5 of that territory for most of the war, I'd be skeptical of that claim.
The whole area is F-ed:
Quote:
With an immense arsenal of mines at their disposal, the Russians have landmined Ukrainian territory at an unprecedented rate, making it one of the largest minefields in the world. It's estimated that approximately 170,000 square kilometers are now covered with anti-tank or anti-personnel landmines, which is about the size of Florida, or almost six times the surface area of Belgium. However, not all of them were laid by the Russians. "The Ukrainians [also] laid a lot of them before the war, especially in the Donbas," an area where the two warring parties have been fighting since 2014, said a source from the French military.
According to Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal, the Russian war in Ukraine has created a minefield of 250,000 square kilometers in size in his country. "It's currently the largest minefield in the world," Shmyhal told South Korea's Yonhap news agency in an interview published on January 8. The mined area, according to Shmyhal, is equivalent to more than 40 percent of Ukraine's total land area. "It's not only making it difficult for people to travel, but also causing major disruptions in farming, which is one of our main industries," he said.
It looks like the information is coming from the Ukrainians, so could be exaggerated. However, there are still a lot of mines there, probably still more than anywhere else in the world.
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This is made worse by the fact that the country that planted the mines has refused to provide maps or information for where the mines were planted. Seeing these deaths 30 years later is tragic, but also totally preventable.
With the case of Ukraine, the Russians apparently constructed a mine field the same size as Florida, and that is just one. There isn't going to be an easy way to clear it and I am sure the Russians aren't going to be helpful either.
That sounds dubious, one Florida covers a lot of Ukraine. By area you could fit 3.5 Floridas in Ukraine.
Thanks for the sources. If you draw a broad boundary around all the areas that contain minefields, I suppose it's conceivable that area could be that large.
Minefield novice here. I've always wondered if sufficient vibration would be enough to set off a mine. I was watching a video on a warthog slowly grinding at a low altitude, and the rumbling that occurred, and it got me wondering.
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Any chance new-age drones equipped with metal-detecting technology can be flown over these areas to map out where the mines are? I have no absolutely no experience or knowledge in this field, but a groundless source of low-altitude scanning could help here if the technology exists?
Any chance new-age drones equipped with metal-detecting technology can be flown over these areas to map out where the mines are? I have no absolutely no experience or knowledge in this field, but a groundless source of low-altitude scanning could help here if the technology exists?
Many mines are made with materials that don't trip metal detectors.
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Minefield novice here. I've always wondered if sufficient vibration would be enough to set off a mine. I was watching a video on a warthog slowly grinding at a low altitude, and the rumbling that occurred, and it got me wondering.
I doubt it.
I've driven with in inches of these babies in a 113 and they haven't gone off
Mine clearance is a ####er
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I had been under the impression that Ukrainian immigrants to Canada were all directly impacted by the war. It seems that the program established by the federal government enabled European based Ukrainians to immigrate as well. CUAET references “Ukrainian nationals” so I guess that’s not limited to those in Ukraine but the description of the program indicates that it was set up for emergency travel to escape the invasion.
I just found out that a friend’s cousin, now in Newfoundland, had been living in the Czech Republic for five years, not Ukraine.
I haven’t been able to find statistics on this or any mention of this anywhere.
I had been under the impression that Ukrainian immigrants to Canada were all directly impacted by the war. It seems that the program established by the federal government enabled European based Ukrainians to immigrate as well. CUAET references “Ukrainian nationals” so I guess that’s not limited to those in Ukraine but the description of the program indicates that it was set up for emergency travel to escape the invasion.
I just found out that a friend’s cousin, now in Newfoundland, had been living in the Czech Republic for five years, not Ukraine.
I haven’t been able to find statistics on this or any mention of this anywhere.
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The invasion of Ukraine started in 2014. I think the intention of the program was to help relieve the refugee crisis that started at the beginning (i.e. the invasion of Crimea, and the Russian backed insurrections in Eastern Ukraine), not just since the 2022 full scale invasion. Poland for example, had over 1 million displaced Ukrainians even before 2022, and I am sure countries like Czechia had many as well.
Also, the CUAET programs isn't an immigration program.
The CUAET is for Ukrainians and their family members who want to come to Canada temporarily due to the crisis resulting from President Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, and then return home when it is safe to do so. It is not a refugee immigration stream.
The Ukrainian nationals who come over using the programs are only offered temporary residency (3 years). If they want to immigrate to Canada, they have to go through the normal immigration process. IIRC, Canada did a similar thing for Kosovar Albanians back in the late 90s and almost all of them returned once the war was over.
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Last edited by FlamesAddiction; 07-26-2023 at 01:25 PM.
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I had been under the impression that Ukrainian immigrants to Canada were all directly impacted by the war. It seems that the program established by the federal government enabled European based Ukrainians to immigrate as well. CUAET references “Ukrainian nationals” so I guess that’s not limited to those in Ukraine but the description of the program indicates that it was set up for emergency travel to escape the invasion.
I just found out that a friend’s cousin, now in Newfoundland, had been living in the Czech Republic for five years, not Ukraine.
I haven’t been able to find statistics on this or any mention of this anywhere.
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There are quite a few who have come over from regions of the country that are unaffected by the war, or as you said, from other countries but because they travel on a UA passport they have been accepted. It actually has been a topic of contention among some arrivals here; are people from Western Ukraine actually refugees, or are they just taking advantage of the program to start a new life in Canada and get the $3k in monetary aid? Believe me, in my household with 3 UA's from the East this is something they discuss regularly. Let's just say they aren't too happy with some people they know from Lviv who are here, or a couple they know who lived in China the past 4 years but saw an opportunity to come here.
CUAET specifically mentions Ukrainian nationals, so if we are to go by that wording then nobody has done anything wrong. Ukrainian national means you are a national from that country, and nowhere does it specify what region you should be from, city of residence, or anything else specific. Before CUAET Ukrainians were certainly scrutinized a lot harder based on where they were from, as well as their background before being allowed entry.
I would say the average Canadian has been fine with opening the door to them, regardless if they are from the West or East. Lviv, Kharkiv, Kherson, Kyiv, it's mostly the same for most people here; the country is at war and people needed to leave. But it's funny you made this post because yeah, the feeling I've gotten from a lot of arrivals is that they kind of look down on their fellow citizen if they came from one of the safer cities or abroad elsewhere, and came here seeking a new opportunity and aren't really fleeing with the clothes on their backs.
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There are quite a few who have come over from regions of the country that are unaffected by the war, or as you said, from other countries but because they travel on a UA passport they have been accepted. It actually has been a topic of contention among some arrivals here; are people from Western Ukraine actually refugees, or are they just taking advantage of the program to start a new life in Canada and get the $3k in monetary aid? Believe me, in my household with 3 UA's from the East this is something they discuss regularly. Let's just say they aren't too happy with some people they know from Lviv who are here, or a couple they know who lived in China the past 4 years but saw an opportunity to come here.
CUAET specifically mentions Ukrainian nationals, so if we are to go by that wording then nobody has done anything wrong. Ukrainian national means you are a national from that country, and nowhere does it specify what region you should be from, city of residence, or anything else specific. Before CUAET Ukrainians were certainly scrutinized a lot harder based on where they were from, as well as their background before being allowed entry.
I would say the average Canadian has been fine with opening the door to them, regardless if they are from the West or East. Lviv, Kharkiv, Kherson, Kyiv, it's mostly the same for most people here; the country is at war and people needed to leave. But it's funny you made this post because yeah, the feeling I've gotten from a lot of arrivals is that they kind of look down on their fellow citizen if they came from one of the safer cities or abroad elsewhere, and came here seeking a new opportunity and aren't really fleeing with the clothes on their backs.
I personally don't think there should be any contention. Some areas of Ukraine have been hit harder and not everywhere is a warzone, but nowhere is exactly safe either. Every region has seen some attacks and the threat for escalation is always present.
I also assume that some ethnic Russians with Ukrainian passports are using the program, which is also fine if they truly object to the war and need safety.
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I personally don't think there should be any contention. Some areas of Ukraine have been hit harder and not everywhere is a warzone, but nowhere is exactly safe either. Every region has seen some attacks and the threat for escalation is always present.
I also assume that some ethnic Russians with Ukrainian passports are using the program, which is also fine if they truly object to the war and need safety.
No kidding. Just because they aren’t literally at your doorstep (but at one time were 110% en route to it) doesn’t mean you’re not fleeing a very dangerous situation. Who knew how fast Ukraine could have fallen at that time and earlier moments of the invasion. To armchair quarterback and criticize people fleeing Ukraine is pretty wild to me.
Reports of Ukraine with a significant breakthrough in Zaporizhzia. So far nothing has been confirmed on the Ukrainian side due to OPSEC but even Russia propaganda reports of Ukrainian losses are geolocated much further south than the main front lines.
