Russia's Shahed-136 Drones Are Laying Anti-Tank Mines
A new video emerged on social media showing at least one of the delta-winged uncrewed aircraft dropping PTM-3 anti-tank mines from canisters attached underneath the Shahed's blended flying-wing-like fuselage. Each canister contains one mine, released by a small explosive charge, which is visible in the video. At least two Ukrainian vehicles appear to have struck the mines.
Russian drones dropping anti-tank mines on roads. pic.twitter.com/pnS5jacNC1
— Clash Report (@clashreport) August 10, 2025
'Today on our channel is the premiere of the latest drone tactics against ground-moving targets,' wrote the Russian NGP-Razvedka military Telegram channel, which posted the video on Sunday. 'Some time ago, the enemy posted anxious messages claiming that under the wing of the Geranium [the Russian name for Shaheds] were found cassettes with mines, suspended with unknown purposes. The malicious NgP soldiers were testing some technologies, but silently.'
'The Geranium conducts remote mining of enemy supply routes in real time, resulting in one transport unit going down, while another with shredded infantry manages to escape, though not very far in such a state,' NGP-Razvedka claimed in an explanation of what is seen in the video. 'The guidance system will be refined, the tactics of use expanded, and the logistics of the Nazis will be turned into a complete nightmare. The range of the Geranium is over 1,000 km (621 miles), do you get what that means?'
The use of Shaheds to drop mines was first revealed last week by the National Police of Ukraine (NPU) after one of the drones was shot down in the Sumy region.
'This method allows the enemy to remotely mine roads, agricultural lands, and more,' NPU explained on its Telegram channel. 'The PTM-3 mine, small in size, in a plastic casing, has a magnetic detonator and reacts to machinery that is nearby or passing by.'
The NPU post included four images of the system recovered from the recovered Shahed, which you can see below.
The police urged 'citizens to be vigilant and careful! This especially applies to drivers of any machinery working in the fields, as well as those moving along field roads where visibility of the road surface is limited due to grass vegetation.' NPU also warned anyone finding one of these mines to contact authorities immediately.
'This also applies to enemy UAVs detected that did not explode upon falling,' NPU added. 'In addition to a powerful warhead, they may also contain mine traps or sensors that can trigger an explosion if tampered with.'
The PTM-3 is a Soviet-era scatterable anti-tank mine that can be deployed either by hand, vehicle, artillery, or helicopter, according to the U.S. Army. The mine's case 'is configured to produce a shaped charge effect on five sides,' the Army noted. 'Once deployed, the mine arms itself after 60 seconds. The mine uses a magnetic influence fuze that detonates the mine when a vehicle passes over it. It is also reported to have an anti-handling device that is sensitive to movement.'
Using Shaheds to drop mines is the latest development of the Iranian-designed weapon that first appeared on the battlefield for Russia in September 2022. They have been frequently improved on since and have become by far Russia's main standoff weapons, used to cause widespread damage across Ukraine.
In addition to adding new capabilities like jet engines and new tactics for evading Ukrainian air defenses, Russia is drastically increasing the number of the drones it is producing. As we have previously noted, while Russia initially relied on Iran to supply its Shaheds, it now produces its own at the rate of 2,000 per month with plans to nearly triple that in the not-too-distant future. It is by far the primary method by which Russia launches long-range strikes into Ukraine.
Another major concern is the infusion of AI into the Shahed-136 airframe, which is already underway. This will have massive repercussions, which we discussed in great detail a year and a half ago in this previous feature.
Not only do we not know how frequently Russia is using Shaheds to drop mines, it is also unclear how many of the systems they have and if the concept is still in a highly experimental state. It is possible that these operate near the front lines, with a human in the loop controlling them. Standard Shahed-136s operate autonomously on autopilot and fly to a fixed target area before diving toward it and detonating. By using man-in-the-loop control, it would provide more agile use of the drones for mining roadways near the front and higher sortie rates. The need for two-way communications to control the drone would be the big limiting factor when it comes to its range and, to some extent, its survivability.
On the other hand, the Shahed could be following a planned route on autopilot, dropping the mines as programmed. This would be a very concerning development as the drones could mine roadways hundreds of miles deep into Ukraine, where no mines would be expected. Again, we discussed the worry that Shaheds will become a far more dynamic threat deep in Ukraine in our past piece linked here.
With this in mind, the video we are seeing could be early combat trials footage from man-in-the-loop nearby mining operations. If not, it would require an autopiloted Shahed to return to friendly territory for the video to be physically recovered from the drone or it would have to uploaded opportunistically via cellular networks while deep over Ukraine.
We just don't know the current or planned concept of operations for these mining-optimized Shaheds at this time.
Meanwhile, Shaheds aren't the only drones Russia is using to deliver PTM-3s. Moscow is now starting to use the mines as warheads for its Lancet line of loitering munitions, according to the Ukrainian Militarnyi media outlet. However, instead of being dropped by Lancets, they are getting installed as the drone's primary kinetic device. With a total weight of 4.9 kg, the PTM-3s pack a stronger punch than the standard KZ-6 warhead, Militarnyi noted. The site offered no information about how widely the PTM-3s are being used in this manner.
Moscow is far behind in using bomber drones to drop mines in this manner, one drone expert claims.
'Using a Geran-2 (Shahed) long-range strike UAV to drop just two PTM-3 anti-tank landmines on frontline roads reflects the pathetic failure of Russia to develop a heavy-lift drone fleet,' an open-source expert using the Grandpa Roy X account stated on the social media platform. 'Ukraine has used its large heavy drone fleet to precision place many thousands of PTM-3s.'
Using a Geran-2 (Shahed) long-range strike UAV to drop just two PTM-3 anti-tank landmines on frontline roads reflects the pathetic failure of Russia to develop a heavy lift drone fleet.Ukraine has used its large heavy drone fleet to precision place many thousands of PTM-3s.1/ https://t.co/ESaWGlwDqR pic.twitter.com/dGvejUAgtf
— Roy
(@GrandpaRoy2) August 11, 2025
With the increasing numbers of Shaheds being produced and plentiful PTM-3s, widespread use of these weapons would pose additional danger to a Ukrainian logistics system already under tremendous pressure from Moscow's ubiquitous attack drones. If the drones are able to scatter these mines virtually anywhere in Ukraine, taking advantage of their long-range, than that could prove to be a terrible problem for Ukrainian military personnel and civilians alike.
Contact the author: howard@thewarzone.com
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