A 61-year-old man was wounded by an anti-personnel mine in Ternova, a village in Kharkiv Oblast near the Russian border, regional governor Oleh Syniehubov reported on Sept. 10.
The victim stepped on the PFM-1 "butterfly" mine at around 12 p.m. on Sept. 9 while mowing the grass, according to Syniehubov. He was evacuated to a hospital.
Like much of the liberated territories in Ukraine, retaken parts of Kharkiv Oblast are also still littered with dangerous explosives that Russian forces left behind.
Through nine years of Russia's brutal war, Ukraine has become the most mined country in the world, former defense minister Oleksii Reznikov told the Guardian in August.
Injuries caused by mines are reported daily in Ukraine, with Kharkiv and the southern Kherson oblasts being the worst affected areas, according to the U.K. Defense Ministry's Aug. 17 intelligence bulletin.
The ministry predicted that the risk of mine-related casualties has increased as more people engage in agricultural activities since Spring.
More than 750 mine-related civilian casualties have been reported since the beginning of Russia's full-scale war, with one in eight involving a child, according to the report.
"It will likely take at least a decade to clear Ukraine of mines," the ministry wrote.
Alexander Query
