Europe

July 23, 2023

The operation to defuse the Second World War war device that had been found in recent days in via Curie has been successfully completed (and ahead of schedule). The operation concluded around 8 a.m. The intervention, which began at dawn, was completed around 8 am by the EOD officers of the XXXII Regiment of the Engineers ...

July 23, 2023

Ukraine has begun using American cluster munitions in the field and is doing so effectively, according to the White House. “They are using them appropriately,” National Security Spokesman John Kirby said on July 21. “They’re using them effectively, and they are actually having an impact on Russia’s defensive formations and Russia’s defensive maneuvering. I think ...

July 23, 2023

All sorts of munitions have been dropped from drones ranging from hand grenades to Molotov balloons to mortar rounds and even blocks of explosive. In this article/video, the authors look at a couple of interesting examples of improvised munitions. In early May an interesting short video was shared by a Ukrainian combatant showing a Fanta soft ...

July 22, 2023

Ukrainian troops have been on exercises in the Scottish Highlands learning how to disarm and defuse Russian bombs, booby traps and mines. Royal Navy divers and experts have been training their Ukrainian counterparts on finding and neutralising explosive devices in Loch Ewe in Wester Ross. The programme included clearing deep water shipping lanes and rendering beaches ...

July 22, 2023

Four Izvestiya and RIA Novosti reporters were injured in a Ukrainian cluster munitions strike at the Zaporozhye Region, the Russian Defense Ministry said Saturday, adding that RIA Novosti reporter Rostislav Zhuravlyov died during evacuation. “At about 12:00 on July 22, 2023, Ukrainian forces carried out an artillery strike at a group of Izvestia and RIA Novosti ...

July 22, 2023

In a year and a half of conflict, land mines — along with unexploded bombs, artillery shells and other deadly byproducts of war — have contaminated a swath of Ukraine roughly the size of Florida or Uruguay. It has become the world’s most mined country. The transformation of Ukraine’s heartland into patches of wasteland riddled with ...

July 20, 2023

International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) experts have carried out additional inspections and walkdowns at Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhya Nuclear Power Plant (ZNPP) over the past week – so far without observing any heavy military equipment, explosives or mines – but they are still awaiting access to the rooftops of the reactor buildings, Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi ...

July 19, 2023

Mine-clearing equipment given to Ukrainian forces by the West is “ineffective” because it is noisy, large, and easy to strike, according to a commander speaking The Washington Post. Officers told the publication that the Ukrainian military had encountered minefields between three and ten miles deep, laid with anti-tank and tripwired anti-personnel mines, in their counteroffensive to ...

July 17, 2023

Twin explosions have damaged the Kerch Bridge connecting Crimea to mainland Russia, killing two people and closing the main conduit for Russian road traffic to the annexed peninsula. The heavily guarded road and rail link is among the Kremlin’s most important and high-prestige infrastructure projects, and the only overland link that goes directly from Russia to ...

July 17, 2023

It is a known piece of historical trivia that for a time during the Second World War, Malta was the most bombed place on the planet. That’s evidenced by the fact that right up to this very day, bombs from back then continue to be unearthed. But no bomb dropped during the war came bigger than ...

July 16, 2023

South Korea will supply Ukraine with more mine detectors and demining equipment as part of its assistance package for the war-torn nation, a presidential official said Sunday. The initiative is made up of nine pillars — three for each type of assistance — including the supply of additional safety equipment, according to Principal Deputy National Security ...

July 15, 2023

In a painstakingly slow process that has come to define the speed of the Ukrainian counteroffensive, small groups of sappers on the front lines are crawling across minefields — sometimes literally on their stomachs — to detonate Russia’s defenses and clear a path for troops to advance. The long buildup to the counteroffensive, which began about ...

July 14, 2023

An incident on Friday involving the explosion of a car in the Russian city of Belgorod, which left three people injured, was caused by an unidentified explosive device, the Russian Investigative Committee in the Belgorod Region said in a statement. “According to preliminary information, an unidentified explosive device detonated in a car moving through the courtyard ...

July 13, 2023

On Thursday morning, an explosion damaged a hall used by the Freemasons in Greece. The Masonic Hall, located in Central Athens, was only minimally damaged. The blast was reportedly caused by an improvised explosive device (IED). The bomb detonated after police arrived on the scene but no one was injured in the ensuing fire. Read more… Source: Greek ...

July 12, 2023

International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) experts have in recent days continued to inspect parts of Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhya Nuclear Power Plant (ZNPP) – without seeing any mines or explosives – but are still waiting to gain the necessary access to the rooftops of reactor units 3 and 4 following recent reports that explosives may have been ...

July 11, 2023

The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), in partnership with the Government of Japan, today announced the delivery of vital equipment and vehicles to aid Ukraine in demining its territories. The package supplied to the State Emergency Service of Ukraine (SESU) includes 14 cutting-edge pyrotechnic vehicles, mine detectors, car radio stations, and personal protective equipment, including body ...

July 11, 2023

Kyiv sees cluster munitions as the next “game changer” in its battle against Russian forces, Ukraine’s defense minister said Tuesday. Speaking on the sidelines of the NATO summit, Oleksiy Reznikov rejected disapproval from some countries and humanitarian groups over the U.S. government’s decision last week to send Ukraine the controversial weapons. Reznikov insisted the use of ...

July 9, 2023

President Joe Biden’s decision to include cluster bombs in the latest $800 million weapons package for Ukraine has drawn disparate reactions from members of Congress, with some Democrats breaking with Biden. “Cluster bombs should never be used. That is crossing a line,” Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Calif.) said Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union.” “I think ...