Direct proof of use
Human Rights Watch's April 2015 technical briefing documented TM-62M anti-vehicle mines near Debaltseve that were placed flush with the road surface, camouflaged with a thin layer of grass, or laid directly on top of the surface. HRW wrote that Ukrainian-government forces apparently emplaced the mines on roads while covering their withdrawal from Debaltseve.
The same briefing cited battlefield imagery from the Debaltseve-Artemivsk road, an Associated Press-witnessed incident in which a rebel truck detonated a surface-laid TM-62M mine at Debaltseve, and Russian news footage of rebel trucks driving between surface-laid TM-62M mines nearby. That evidence supports surface-laid anti-vehicle mine use in the 2014 Russia-Ukraine War without treating every landmine documented in Ukraine as surface-laid.
Sources: HRW Landmines in Ukraine Technical Briefing Note
Timeline
The earliest public milestones in the cited record include July 2014 reporting of TM-62M anti-vehicle mines seized from a former separatist headquarters in Sloviansk and the December 2014 Ukrainian emplacement of PDM-1M anti-landing mines near Mariupol. Those incidents document mine warfare in the conflict, but they are not the central direct proof for this surface-laid entry.
The direct surface-laid evidence comes from February 2015 around Debaltseve. HRW described TM-62M mines placed on or flush with road surfaces as Ukrainian-government forces withdrew, and cited a rebel truck detonation and nearby footage of vehicles moving among surface-laid mines.
Sources: HRW Landmines in Ukraine Technical Briefing Note
Battlefield role
In the Debaltseve evidence, the surface-laid mines functioned as anti-vehicle obstacles on roads rather than as buried long-term minefields. Their placement on or near the surface is important because the same TM-62M mine can be hand-emplaced or mechanically laid in different ways; the cited incident supports the emplacement pattern, not a separate factory model.
Later mine-use reporting shows why this entry stays narrow. HRW's 2022 background briefing said both Russian and Ukrainian forces had extensively used anti-vehicle mines after the full-scale invasion and that hand-emplaced TM-62 series mines appeared to be the most frequently used anti-vehicle type. The Monitor's Ukraine profile likewise says TM-62 series mines are often buried but have also been seen laid on top of the ground. Those later sources support broader conflict context, while the 2015 HRW technical note supplies the direct Debaltseve surface-laid case.
Sources: HRW Landmines in Ukraine Technical Briefing Note, HRW Background Briefing on Landmine Use in Ukraine, Ukraine Mine Ban Policy
