According to Ukrainian military and political observer Oleksandr Kovalenko, Ukraine has verified a new type of Shahed-136 drone equipped with two PTM-3 anti-tank mines mounted under its wings.This modification significantly expands the Russian forces’ capacity for terror and raises the danger level posed by these kamikaze drones.The PTM-3 is an anti-tank mine used for remote mining. It is relatively light — 4.9 kg (10.8 lbs) total, with 1.8 kg of explosives. Its main danger is a non-contact magnetic fuse that reacts to metal. While designed to target vehicles and armored equipment, it can also detonate if a person carrying more than 50 grams of metal comes near.This is not the first time PTM-3 mines have appeared on Russian strike drones. The Russian military has regularly tried to integrate them into aerial weapons. Since January 2025, PTM-3s have often been installed on low-cost Molniya-2 drones, which have served as experimental attack platforms. These drones have also been fitted with TM-62 anti-tank mines, KZ-6 shaped charges, and RPO-A Shmel thermobaric charges. Recently, a Lancet loitering munition was shown carrying a PTM-3 instead of its standard warhead.The case of the Shahed-136 is different. The drone retains its powerful 90-kg (198-lb) warhead, while the PTM-3s are loaded into KPTM-3 cassettes for direct deployment — allowing the drone to mine roads and fields remotely during its flight. This adds a serious new layer of threat.While this use of Shaheds as "ersatz bombers" is not yet widespread, Kovalenko warns that if the Russian command approves it, the tactic could be scaled up quickly. Shaheds could drop PTM-3s along roads or over fields, mining routes used by mobile fire groups. For example, five drones could scatter 10 mines; ten drones could deploy 20. During city strikes, they could also mine streets near the target area, putting emergency services such as firefighters, police, and ambulance crews at risk. Because of the metal equipment these responders carry, the mines could react to them as well.The danger would not end with the attack. The next morning, civilian vehicles, cyclists, and even people on scooters could trigger the mines. Remote mining of fields could also threaten farmers during harvest — although on soft ground the mines may bury themselves and cause less damage. On asphalt or hard surfaces, however, the threat remains high.Kovalenko stresses that this marks a new stage of scalable terror. Since first deploying Shahed-136 drones against Ukraine, Russian forces have sought to improve both the drone itself and its destructive capacity — experimenting with increased shrapnel, thermobaric warheads, and more. Today’s Shaheds, with their 90-kg high-explosive fragmentation warheads, can match the destructive effect of 250-kg OFAB aerial bombs. A mass strike of 20–30 drones on a single city can be equivalent to carpet bombing.Now, with the ability to scatter PTM-3 mines, such strikes could also turn into large-scale indiscriminate remote mining operations targeting Ukrainian roads, cities, fields, and rear areas.Kovalenko concludes that Ukraine has had three years since the first Shahed attack to prepare for this possibility, but has not yet developed an effective countermeasure. The only truly effective response, he argues, is to destroy the threat at its source — in production facilities located 1,300 kilometers from Ukraine’s border, in Yelabuga and Izhevsk.