Commentary
People in conflict zones have been using mines since the U.S. Civil War—but, what’s going on in Ukraine today is unique in history. 
For one, it’s happening at a larger scale than we’ve seen since World War II. Ukraine has the second-largest area of all European countries, and already large parts of it have been contaminated with mines and other explosives. According to Valon Kumnova, chief of mine action programs at the Geneva International Centre for Humanitarian Demining (GICHD), the intensity of combat means there’s more unexploded ordnance than we’ve seen in other recent conflicts. In addition, the Russian forces are planting mines in urban and agricultural areas, and even in sea lanes. Never before have all three of these key forms of terrain been so extensively mined at once. …