From First Chechen War to 2002, around 10,000 people have been killed or injured, including 4,000 women and children, due to explosive devices.
Urban areas (including civil buildings in the capital Grozny), villages, roads, fields, woods, mountain paths, bridges, and rivers were mined.
The most heavily mined areas are those in which rebels continue to put up resistance, namely the southern regions, and the borders of Chechnya.
No humanitarian mine clearance has taken place since the HALO Trust was evicted in December 1999, after the Russian government accused the organization of espionage and arrested some of its staff.
In June 2002, Olara Otunnu, the United Nations Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict, estimated that there were 500,000 land mines placed in the region.