Ukraine conflict: Likely Russia using scatterable anti-personnel mines in Donbas - MoD

The UK's Ministry of Defence (MoD) says Russia is "highly likely" to be deploying anti-personnel mines along its defensive lines in eastern Ukraine.

The intelligence update from the MoD warns that the mines could "inflict widespread casualties" among both Ukraine's military and local civilians.

The update from the MoD reads: “Russia is highly likely deploying anti-personnel mines to protect and deter freedom of movement along its defensive lines in the Donbas. These mines have the potential to inflict widespread casualties amongst both the military and the local civilian population.

"In Donetsk and Kramatorsk, Russia has highly likely attempted employment of PFM-1 and PFM-1S scatterable anti-personnel mines. Commonly called the ‘butterfly mine’, the PFM-1 series are deeply controversial, indiscriminate weapons.

The UK's Ministry of Defence says Russia is "highly likely" to be deploying anti-personnel mines along its defensive lines in eastern Ukraine's Donbas.

"PFM-1s were used to devastating effect in the Soviet-Afghan War where they allegedly maimed high numbers of children who mistook them for toys.”The update added: “It is highly likely that the Soviet-era stock being used by Russia will have degraded over time and are now highly unreliable and unpredictable.

"This poses a threat to both the local population and humanitarian mine clearance operations.”

United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres has said he hopes international inspectors will be allowed access to Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant – warning that there is a real risk of a disaster if the situation remains unchecked.

Ukraine and Russia have both accused each other of shelling the site, prompting warnings of a “very real risk of a nuclear disaster” from the UN’s nuclear watchdog.

Zaporizhzhia, in south-east Ukraine, is Europe’s largest nuclear power plant and was seized by the Russians in March but kept its Ukrainian employees.

“Any attack to a nuclear plant is a suicidal thing,” Guterres says.

Speaking at the prayer at the Hiroshima Peace Park following the dropping of the world’s first atomic bomb on Hiroshima on August 6 1945, which destroyed the city and killed 140,000 people, UN secretary general Antonio Guterres said: “Nuclear weapons are nonsense. They guarantee no safety – only death and destruction.”

Over the weekend, six more ships carrying agricultural cargo held up by the war in Ukraine received authorisation on Sunday to leave the country’s Black Sea coast