Russian combat engineers destroy 260 UXO at Schastye power plant

Russian combat engineers carrying out the demining of the Schastye power plant have already discovered and destroyed around 250 explosive remnants, the engineer unit commander call-sign 'Lex' told journalists.

"Here, at the Schastye power plant, sappers have explored all the premises, underground premises, storages, etc. Around 250 explosive remnants have been discovered, 20-30 are destroyed every day," he said.

According to 'Lex', almost all the mines have been installed in a manner making it impossible to deactivate them, and engineers have to explode them on the site. An Uran-6 mine-clearing robot is used in the operation.

One engineer has sustained injury on duty.

"A unit commander has sustained a minor injury, he is currently in hospital."

Aidar, a Ukrainian nationalistic battalion, used the Schastye power plant as its stronghold, and turned its territory into a warren of fire positions and bunkers, some of them hiding Javelin anti-tank systems.

On February 24, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a special military operation in Donbass to protect residents of the region from Ukrainian aggression and called on Ukrainian troops to leave the combat zone. Earlier, the Heads of the Lugansk and Donetsk People’s Republics, Leonid Pasechnik and Denis Pushilin, requested Russian President Vladimir Putin to provide military assistance.

The Ukrainian government launched the so-called anti-terrorist operation against Donbass in April 2014.  The members of the Contact Group have announced ceasefire more than 20 times since the autumn of 2014. Kiev forces regularly violated the truce opening fire with large caliber artillery, mortars and tank guns which were to have been withdrawn from the contact line under the accords. *t