Direct proof of use
Human Rights Watch documented Russian use of POM-2 antipersonnel mines and KPOM-2 dispensers in Ukraine after the February 2022 full-scale invasion. Its June 2022 briefing reported POM-2 mines and KPOM-2 dispensers photographed by Kharkiv emergency services near villages in the Brovary and Vyshgorod districts of Kyiv region on April 17, 2022, additional POM-2 mines photographed with TM-62M anti-vehicle mines near Stara Buda on April 20, and other POM-2 mines photographed elsewhere in Kyiv region.
Earlier Donbas evidence links the mine family to the pre-2022 phase of the same conflict. Truth Hounds says it documented Russian use of POM-2 mines during an attack on a border post in Milove on August 8, 2014. Conflict Armament Research later documented POM-2 launching cases and KPOM-2 cluster units recovered from the war in Ukraine, while DFRLab reported open-source imagery of POM-2 mines adapted to RPG-7 rocket motors and 82 mm mortar delivery in eastern Ukraine.
Sources: HRW Landmine Use in Ukraine, Truth Hounds Antipersonnel Mines, Weapons of the War in Ukraine, DFRLab Long-range Mining in the Donbas
Timeline
The earliest dated incident in this record is Truth Hounds' account of POM-2 mines used by Russian forces during the August 8, 2014 attack on the Milove border post. CAR's field documentation then shows POM-2-related materiel in Ukrainian custody during the Donbas phase: one empty POM-2 launching case in Severodonetsk on December 19, 2018, followed by two more POM-2 launching cases and six KPOM-2 cluster units in Mariupol on September 18, 2019.
In October 2020, DFRLab described imagery from eastern Ukraine showing improvised POM-2 delivery assemblies using RPG-7 rocket motors and 82 mm mortar rounds. HRW's 2022 briefing tied that pattern to Russia-backed forces in 2020 and 2021 and separately documented POM-2 and KPOM-2 items cleared or photographed in Kyiv region in April 2022.
Sources: Truth Hounds Antipersonnel Mines, Weapons of the War in Ukraine, DFRLab Long-range Mining in the Donbas, HRW Landmine Use in Ukraine
Narrative
The POM-2 appears in the 2014 Russia-Ukraine War as a scatterable and sometimes improvised antipersonnel mine used for area denial. Standard KPOM-2 cluster units can scatter POM-2 mines, while POM-2R is a factory variant for manual emplacement. In the Donbas evidence set, the mine also appeared in improvised short-range systems in which a POM-2 body was combined with an RPG rocket motor or associated with mortar delivery.
Landmine Monitor assesses that Russia has used antipersonnel mines extensively in Ukraine since February 24, 2022 and lists POM-2/POM-2R among Russian-used types; its Ukraine profile notes that Russia stockpiles POM-2 and POM-2R mines while Ukraine destroyed its stocks of the mine in 2018. Those stockpile facts support attribution context, but the use claims in this record rest on the conflict-specific documentation from HRW, Truth Hounds, CAR, DFRLab, and Landmine Monitor.
Sources: HRW Landmine Use in Ukraine, Russia Mine Ban Policy, Ukraine Mine Ban Policy, DFRLab Long-range Mining in the Donbas, Weapons of the War in Ukraine
