Thread by @deangloster

About the butterfly mines the Russians dropped outside Mariupol to kill and injure fleeing civilians. A thread. 🧵
Once in 1986 in Peshawar, near the border of Afghanistan, when I was an alleged freelance journalist, a guy tossed a (deactivated) butterfly mine at my chest. 1/x

He was one of two rival “Afghan Information Institute directors.” (It was Afghanistan. Of course there were two rival information institution directors. He was the goofy one who flung mines at visiting journalists. I wrote about it here: 2/x yaoutsidethelines.blogspot.com/2017/09/crushi…

I never reached out to grab the butterfly mine, because I’d been warned by no fewer than 3 other people to expect that greeting--journalists in war zones look out for each other, even (or especially) for clueless newbies like I was. 3/x

Even though the explosive had been removed, I was concerned that the igniter could blow off a finger. (And the guy who tossed it to me used to store an unexploded Soviet howitzer round in his apartment so--Aaiiee. 4/x

But I _am_ well familiar with Russian butterfly mines. Unlike most people, I've had one bounce off my chest. They're "toe poppers" intended to maim--blowing off a leg or an arm--instead of killing, because a wounded colleague slows people down more than a dead one. 5/x

Russian butterfly mines are dropped from aircraft, typically helicopters, dispersing as they flutter to the ground. And they're particularly interesting to children, because they resemble plastic toys. 6/7

It is horrific and unconscionable that the Russians dropped butterfly mines to block civilian evacuation of Mariupol after they declared a cease-fire to permit evacuation. Which they did. It's the deliberate maiming of children.
May God have mercy on their souls.
I do not. 7/7🇺🇦