The Kremlin media report another example of the perfidy of "Ukrainian neo-Nazis": in Severodonetsk, they used improvised explosive devices that could cause gangrene in a person. RIA "Novosti" in the article under the heading "Ukrainian troops placed mines with garbage in Severodonetsk, said in the LNR" writes :
“Ukrainian troops in residential areas of Severodonetsk used improvised explosive devices stuffed with construction debris in battles, which, when it entered the human body, caused multiple suppurations and gangrene,” Ivan Filiponenko, an official representative of the People’s Militia of the LPR, told the participants of a press tour organized by the Russian Ministry of Defense.
“A completely non-trivial-looking sock, however, the Armed Forces of Ukraine, in combination with TNT checkers, was used as follows. All kinds of fragments of building materials were collected into the sock itself – mainly crushed stone, glass concrete. They were installed by means of electric detonators on a TNT block and used as improvised explosive devices,” he said, demonstrating to Russian and foreign journalists a sample of such a mine.
According to Filiponenko, such a device, most likely, will not be able to kill a person on the spot, but a lot of fragments get into the body.
“All this crumbles and creates suppuration. Unlike fragments of conventional military ammunition, they cannot be removed, for example, with a magnet. That is, serious injuries are inflicted. In the future, it develops into blood poisoning, gangrene, sepsis, and so on, ”said the representative of the People’s Militia.
According to Filiponenko, such devices were "actively used by Ukrainian troops, despite the fact that there are civilian infrastructure facilities, apartment buildings, a playground."
“That is, anyone could become a victim of an improvised explosive device. But, obviously, the Ukrainian troops were not at all interested in this, ”he concluded.”
The same is reported by MK, Gazeta.ru, Vzglyad, Lenta.ru, Tsargrad and many other propaganda publications.
Gangrene is the necrosis (death) of body tissues. The causes of gangrene can be different: circulatory disorders (including as a result of injury), burns, frostbite, electric shock, exposure to acid or alkali, infection with enterobacteria – Escherichia coli, Proteus, Clostridia – and other microorganisms.
It is clear that injuries caused by the use of construction debris as a striking element will not differ in any way from injuries inflicted by other improvised explosive devices. Of course, such a mine cannot cause a burn, frostbite and electrical injury. Concentrated acid or alkali is unlikely to end up in construction debris. Enterobacteria do not live in construction debris, but can get into the wound from the soil during the explosion of any mine.
Finally, non-magnetic materials in the design of mines have been widely used since the middle of the 20th century, when magnetic mine detectors became widespread. And extracting damaging elements with a magnet is far from the only method known to surgeons. So the claim that there are special types of mines that cause gangrene is absurd.
None of the publications in the Kremlin media is illustrated with a photograph of a "garbage mine", which raises serious doubts about its existence.
RIA ends its material with the following statement:
“The use of mines and explosives is prohibited by the Geneva Convention. The forces of the republics of Donbass and Russia do not use them.”
In fact, the Convention on Prohibitions or Restrictions on the Use of Certain Conventional Weapons Which May Be Deemed to be Excessively Injurious or to Have Indiscriminate Effects does not prohibit but only restricts the use of mines. It says about them:
“It is forbidden to use <…> in any city, town, village or other area with a similar concentration of civilians, where hostilities between ground forces are not ongoing or do not seem inevitable.”
Fully anti-personnel mines are prohibited by the 1997 Ottawa Treaty. Ukraine signed and ratified it, Russia did not.