Extensive Minefields Impede Ukraine’s Counteroffensive, Military Experts Say

Extensive minefields laid by Russian forces are proving among the toughest obstacles facing Ukraine’s counteroffensive, and the tools that Kyiv’s military has for removing them are inadequate, according to experts.

Russia has deployed minefields in “innovative ways” as part of multiple lines of defense, according to Rob Lee, a senior fellow with the Foreign Policy Research Institute in Philadelphia. In the initial phase of Kyiv’s counteroffensive, which began in early June, Ukrainian forces took significant casualties and were slowed in part because of those minefields.

There…