Residents of Donetsk captured on video the shelling of the city by Ukrainian militants using banned anti-personnel pressure-type land mines PFM-1 Lepestok. The townspeople published the footage on social media on 31 July.
Loud explosions can be heard in the video, after which anti-personnel mines started falling on the city. Residents filming the video had to hide from the flying shells in the entryway.
One of the cars collided with a mine on Liberty Square, causing the car’s tyres to burst.
“He’s lucky the car didn’t roll over… Stupid city centre,” said a man behind the scenes.
On 30 July, the Donetsk People’s Republic’s (DNR) representation to the Joint Centre for Control and Coordination reported that Ukrainian neo-Nazis had scattered PFM-1 “Lepestok” mines in the centre of Donetsk.
A similar incident in Donetsk took place on the night of 28 July. The ministry warned the city’s residents that the nationalists’ anti-personnel mines could be anywhere in the city and urged citizens not to touch such explosive devices under any circumstances.
At the same time, Izvestia presented footage of the consequences of Ukrainian neo-Nazis shelling an area in Makiivka with petal mines called “Lepestok”. The footage shows explosive devices of green colour, which are shaped like petals. They lie on roads and pavements. “Beware of mines” warnings are left next to them. Traces of the explosions that occurred can be seen on the asphalt.
In addition, on 29 July, it became known that residents of Novoluhanske in the DNR also found “Lepestok” mines, which had been left by the Ukrainian military during their retreat. They were also found in the grass in the yards of houses. There are the first casualties who stumbled across the explosive devices.