A leading Ukrainian doctor says mines second only to artillery as a cause of soldier injuries

• Mines are the second-most-frequent cause of injury for Ukraine's soldiers, a medical officer told The Guardian.
• Russia has laid millions of mines across the front line, causing major issues for Ukraine.

A leading Ukrainian medical officer said mines come second only to artillery as a cause of injury to soldiers, as the country's troops battle the dense minefields laid by Russia's forces.

Serhiy Ryzhenko, the chief medical officer at the Mechnikov hospital in the southeastern city of Dnipro, told The Guardian that of the 50 to 100 soldiers he receives each day, many are injured by artillery, but mines now account for the second-highest number.

"Every day Mechnikov hospital receives 50 to 100 very, very seriously wounded people," he said, adding that the hospital has so far treated about 21,000 soldiers.

"Among these 21,000 soldiers, 2,000 were missing limbs," he said.

Russia has laid dense minefields across the east of Ukraine, which Ukraine says is hampering its counteroffensive efforts to take back territory.

The secretary of the country's National Security and Defense Council, Oleksiy Danilov, called the density of Russia's mines "insane" earlier this month.

And Ukraine's defense minister, Oleksii Reznikov, told The Guardian that Ukraine was now the world's most heavily mined country. He asked the country's allies for more equipment to help clear the mines.

The density of the minefields has forced Ukrainian soldiers in some places to get out of their Western-supplied tanks to try to advance on foot, while a shortage of advanced de-mining equipment has left some Ukrainians trying to clear mines by hand.

Doctors in Ukraine's southern region told The New York Times earlier this month that they see many injuries caused by mines and shrapnel but few people hit by bullets during the current counteroffensive.

In some cases, Ukrainian soldiers have been blasted by mines as they try to reach their comrades who were hit by other mines, the Times reported.

Ukrainian soldiers also described to Sky News trying to locate mines with a metal detector while another soldier stood guard with an automatic weapon, all while Russian forces shelled and shot at them.

Experts previously told Insider that Russia was able to build such strong defenses, including its minefields, because Western delays in sending Ukraine weapons postponed the start of its counteroffensive push.

Reznikov, the defense minister, said Ukraine has skilled sappers, but nowhere near enough.

One Ukrainian unit currently dealing with Russia's mines saw two sappers lose feet in explosions in the space of two weeks, The Guardian reported.

Some of Ukraine's European allies have agreed to train and equip Ukrainians for clearing mines, but Reznikov told The Guardian that Ukraine still needs help from more of its allies.