At least six Ukrainian servicemen deployed to the Donbas war zone have suffered serious eye damage from unidentified optical radiation devices used by Kremlin-backed militants on several occasions since 2016.
The military believes that the soldiers were likely targeted with blinding laser devices, which Russia brought to Donbas in order to test this new advanced technology in battlefield conditions. If independently confirmed, the usage of such weapons can be qualified as a war crime, according to international law.
Since the war’s outbreak in 2014, there have been at least three such incidents recorded by the State Border Service and the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense.
On July 18, 2016, three Ukrainian border guards deployed to a forward checkpoint between the city of Maryinka just west of Russian-occupied Donetsk suffered severe eye injuries as they surveyed enemy territory in front of them through binoculars and monoculars.
According to the Border Service’s spokesperson, Oleh Slobodyan, the details of the incident leave little doubt that the Russian-backed militants used laser weaponry.
“Above all, the servicemen who were watching the location through monoculars had only one of their eyes injured, while the one using binoculars had both eyes burned,” Slobodyan commented shortly after the incident on Aug. 16, 2016.
“All of them saw a specific flash of light which could also indicate the use of laser weapons. Furthermore, the medics that analyzed the traumas say that such injuries are caused by lasers.”
Slobodyan added that the blinding ray likely emanated from the direction of Russian-backed forces approximately one kilometer away.
However, the actual specifications of the laser device used remain unknown to Ukrainian side.
“We can say that they more likely just tested (the blinding laser),” Slobodyan said. “It’s not a secret that Russia uses Donbas as its testing ground for new weapons.”
Such an incident occurred once again in late March 2018 in the same location, with one border guard sustaining an eye-burn while surveying enemy territory through an optic device.
As in 2016, the Service announced laser weapons as the most probable cause.
The deputy head of Ukraine’s State Border Service, Lieutenant General Oleh Blyashenko, told the Kyiv Post in a statement that three of the injured guards underwent a “conservative treatment” in Kyiv, while another received a surgical operation on his retina at a special medical center in Vinnytsya.
“As a result of the treatment, eyesight was restored by 80-100 percent,” he said. “Nonetheless, a deterioration of central vision has been observed.”
The border guards deployed near Maryinka were apparently not the only ones to face the new weaponry Russia is allegedly testing in Donbas.
In response to a request by the Kyiv Post, the Ukrainian Defense Ministry said that two Armed Forces soldiers had sustained “ophthalmic irradiation injuries” in combat and were treated in the main military hospital in Kyiv.
However, the ministry did not reveal any further details, citing secrecy laws.
Meanwhile, various kinds of non-lethal blinding lasers, or dazzlers, are produced and used by military and law enforcing agencies in a number of countries, including the United States, China, Russia, and the United Kingdom.
Russia officially produces a non-lethal dazzler, called Potok, with an effective range of some 1.5 kilometers for its Interior Ministry forces.
For the most part, such devices emit intense direct light radiation to disable electronic light sensors or human eyes with flash blindness. The lasers can inflict temporary blindness or simply disorient a human target, thus preventing it from delivering effective fire or navigating terrain.
Nevertheless, international law imposes strict restrictions on such weapons: any devices with an emissive power of over 2.5 milliwatts per square centimeter are considered exceedingly harmful to the human eye and can inflict a severe injury or even permanent blindness. Under the United Nations Protocol on Blinding Laser Weapons issued in 1995, such devices are banned.
Since December 2017, the International Court of Justice qualifies the use of such lasers as a war crime that leads to indiscriminate manslaughter or causes excessive physical suffering.
