Spanish mines used by Ukrainian defenders against Russian tanks

The information provided by the Spanish government on the weapons delivered to Ukraine has so far been rather scarce.

Surprise for the secret delivery to Ukraine of the criticized Spanish CETME L rifles
The rare prototype of the Spanish BMR armored vehicle that appeared in Ukraine

Leaving aside the larger weapons systems (vehicles and missile launchers), the Spanish government has given little information about the light weapons delivered to Ukraine for its defense against the Russian invasion. On occasions we have been able to find out about the arrival of this weaponry in Ukraine through images arriving from that country, specifically from Ukrainian forces, as was the case with the CETME L assault rifles and an old prototype of the BMR armored vehicle.

Russians are confronted with “foreign” land mines.
These are Spanish C-3-B blast anti-tank mines with a pressure plate fuze. https://t.co/oOgfvRaUzm pic.twitter.com/G7wsyX0LWX

— Roy🇨🇦 (@GrandpaRoy2) September 11, 2024

This afternoon, Canadian OSINT expert @GrandpaRoy2 posted images that were shared yesterday on the Telegram channel of Russian Black Sea Fleet engineers. The expert comments: "Russians are confronted with “foreign” land mines. These are Spanish C-3-B blast anti-tank mines with a pressure plate fuze." Above you can see a video of one of these mines, published by the aforementioned Russian channel.

You can see here the two photos of this mine published by the Russian channel. Curiously, although it is a Spanish mine, the Russian engineers do not mention Spain as a possible country of origin. Instead, they mention the following NATO countries as users of this type of mine: United States, Poland, France, Great Britain, Germany, Italy, Slovakia and the Czech Republic.

Regarding the mine, Russian engineers point out the following data:

Anti-tank mine Expal C-3-A and C-3-B: Explosive (round), modified polystyrene shell. Classification "minimum metal", with a total mass of 5.7 kg - with 4.6 kg of explosive mixture (TNT / RDX / aluminum - 50/30/20), diameter 290 mm, height 60 mm. Pressure: from 140 to 275 kg.
Product data:
anti-tank landmine
Explosion effect: high explosive
Year of manufacture: -
Total weight: 5.7 kg
Explosive mass: 4.6Kg
Height: 60 mm
Diameter: 290 mm
Body: rubber-modified polystyrene
Charge type: TNT/RDX/aluminum – 50/30/20
Pressure: 140 to 275 kg.

Regarding these Spanish mines, the website cat-uxo.com states the following:

The C-3-B has no metal content and cannot be located using metal detectors under most field conditions.

When approximately 145kg of pressure is applied to the pressure plate, it forces the pushrod down.

On detonation, the landmine will normally cause a mobility kill on the vehicle as well as propel secondary fragmentation out to a radius of 150 to 225m.

So far, the Spanish government has not indicated at any time that it is sending anti-tank mines to Ukraine. As the Russian source points out, it is possible that they originate in another country.

However, there is a curious coincidence: according to Infodefensa, a year ago the Spanish Army awarded Expal a contract to supply 7,500 anti-tank mines, including 6,000 C-5 model war mines, 500 blank mines and 1,000 training mines, for a unit price of 190, 178.5 and 125 euros, respectively. These mines were expected to be stored for ten years, so it is not confirmed that the mine found in Ukraine is part of that batch.

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Main photo: An archive image of a destroyed Russian T-73B3 tank in Ukraine.