Commentary by Russia military journalist Boris Rozhin in italics
[ColonelCassad] Actual text for residents of Donetsk and the liberated territories, which the Armed Forces of Ukraine are actively mining with anti-personnel mines of the Petal type.
The Petal Problem
In this material, I will not touch on violations of conventions, treachery and ethics in the use of PFM-1 "Petal" mines by the enemy, cries about the deceit and meanness of the enemy, these are all "talks in favor of the poor." It is especially surprising to hear this from the military, and what did you actually expect, that the enemy would fight honestly ???!!!
But this is poetry, here I will only touch on technical issues, briefly, so that it would be clear to a non-specialist.
Recently, in the network, there are some attractions of unprecedented dementia and courage to clear these mines.
They drive over them with armored vehicles, damaging gooses and asphalt, throwing tires, bricks at them, hitting them with a stick, shooting from a machine gun ...
Well, the classic movie idiocy:
So, what is this mine and how to mine it correctly and safely.
Introductory part:
PFM-1 anti-personnel mine, high-explosive, pressure action. The mine does not hit the victim with fragments (the body is soft polyethylene), with the exception of secondary ones, formed by the material with which it comes into contact during the explosion, asphalt, concrete, stone, metal. The defeat is inflicted due to brisance, i.e. crushing the limb that clicked on the mine.
Designed to disable enemy personnel. A person is injured at the moment of stepping with the foot (pressing with the hand) on the target sensor, which is the ENTIRE area of the semi-soft polyethylene container with liquid explosive VS-6D. The photo shows a thicker part of the mine, as thick as a finger and a "wing", which is just a piece of plastic. The application of the load on this very wing is completely safe. But pressing on the "thick" part, with a force of 5-25 kg, causes an explosion. Yes, for those who like to pick it up - the liquid explosive inside is TOXIC!
The mine has no anti-recovery devices and is formally non-disposable. Those. does not explode when trying to lift it, change its position in space. The main thing is not to apply a load to the thick part of the mine.
It is installed ONLY by means of remote mining from cassettes. Those. the mine is stored in a cassette (there are several types of cassettes, they may not visually differ from each other in any way except for the marking) in the transport (safe) position, the transfer to the combat position begins at the moment the cassette is fired. On the descending part of the flight path, mines are pushed out of the hull by a squib. The transfer to the combat position ends 1-10 minutes after the mine touches the surface.
It is technically impossible to bring a mine (hundreds of pieces) safely in your pocket, in a backpack, and then manually transfer them to a combat position.
Since the mine is stored in cassettes, and the cassettes are in containers of different capacities, a lot of them spill out onto the surface at once, usually tens, hundreds, thousands of pieces. And sow the area from hundreds of square meters to tens of thousands o
f square meters. The color of the mine can be any shade of green or brown.
There is another option PFM-1C, with self-destruction in 1-40 hours.
IMPORTANT!!!
PFM-1S looks no different from PFM-1, which DOES NOT HAVE a self-destruct device. Neither color nor size. PFM-1S may or may not have a "C" marking on the wing, the wing may be damaged, covered in mud, hidden by something.
This is important for understanding demining operations. Because, you can raise a mine by the wing and at that moment, according to the law of meanness, the self-liquidator will work.
The main part:
1. Since the "Petal" is installed (read scattered) ONLY by means of remote mining using MLRS, aviation, a portable mining kit. Then, as a rule, mines just lie on the surface, openly. Difficulty of visual detection only in dense vegetation, heavily littered terrain, or when mines lie on the surface for a very long time and are covered with dust, snow, and fallen leaves.
2. When a PFM is found, if you are a civilian or a non-specialist, simply mark the location of the mine with an easily visible at any time of the day and difficult to move landmark / sign. Be careful! If you found one PFM, then there are a lot of them around, most likely. The discovery of one is an occasion to let others know and increase attention, since there are a lot of them around.
Report the find to specially authorized people. Keep children away from mines, they have an "interesting" shape and attract the attention of children.
3. If you were involved in demining, you don’t need to shoot every “Petal” like a moron and do with them everything that I wrote about above and what the Internet and TG channels are littered with. You expose yourself and others to ricochets from gunfire or injury from secondary fragmentation when mines explode on hard ground.
Take any plastic bottle with a capacity of 2 liters, preferably 5 liters, cut it off "under the scoop". From improvised materials, wood, for example, you make a handle-holder 2-2.5 m long, attach it to a scoop from a plastic bottle by sticking a plastic bottle into the neck and tightly fixing it with plastic ties and tape. NOT steel screws! You get such an impromptu scoop, light and without dangerous secondary fragments even when the PFM explodes.
With the help of this scoop, you collect PFM on the ground, taking them to pre-determined, safe places for collection, where they will then be destroyed / taken out by sappers. It would be nice to have SIBZ (BZh, helmet) and goggles on yourself, ordinary construction glasses will do. It's enough. It is not necessary to use shovels with metal bayonets and holders, if, according to the law of meanness, it is at the moment of carrying that the self-liquidator will work or, by pulling on the PFM, press it with a hard bayonet of the shovel and an explosion will occur, the metal of the shovel can injure you. It's useless. You can use spatulas with bayonets made of thin three-layer plywood, as instructed, but in my opinion, in our time, it is easier to find a plastic bottle in the DB zone than plywood.
P.S.
Yes, to advisers who say that you need high-quality shoes, but you don’t need to lace them up, or you need to put on sneakers and then you’ll definitely be saved ... Put on everything that you advise and walk around PFM-1. Under the record. And then we'll talk.
Be literate in engineering and may not only strength be with you, but also mind;)
https://ohotnik1975.livejournal.com/230912.html
And yes, in the order of tediousness. Mining the streets of a populated city with Petals to kill civilians is a war crime. To date, 24 people have been blown up by such mines in Donetsk. One of them has died.