LocationsIn Ukraine, tackling mine action from all sides to make land safe again
October 14, 2024
An Explosive Ordnance Disposal Specialist works in Ukraine to clear land of contamination from the war.
The war is not over, but it’s never too soon to start making the land safe again.
Ukraine is now the most mined country in the world, with potentially 23 percent of its land at risk of contamination with landmines and unexploded ordnance.
After nearly three years of full-scale war, Ukraine is estimated to be littered with hundreds of thousands of explosive remnants of war.
Clearing landmines and unexploded ordnance often takes decades and requires significant investment. (In Ukraine, costs are expected to be around US$34.6 billion.) These hazards pose a considerable and growing threat to the civilian population and significantly impede the country’s economic potential. Early recovery support, in the form of clearing the land and making it safe, is key to getting people to continue, or restart, their lives.
The State Emergency Service of Ukraine relies on Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) teams, but throughout Ukraine, there is a shortage of trained specialists. There are currently at least 4,000 deminers in the country, but that doesn’t meet the need.
"I think that even if we collected all the sappers or trained people who can clear mines from all over the world and brought them to Ukraine, it would still not be enough," says Ukrainian Deputy Economy Minister Ihor Bezkaravainyi.
Oleksandra Yevdokimova, volunteer deminer, began working in the field one and half years ago.
Deminers Patron and Mykhailo "Misha" Iliev, with Giles Duley, UN Global Advocate
Oleksandra Yevdokimova was a logistician with no prior experience before she began working in demining one and half years ago. "From what I see, there's a close to 50/50 proportion of men and women (on the staff)," says the volunteer deminer.
“My children are my motivation. They live in a country that is currently unsafe due to landmines. My goal is to ensure that every inch of our land is free from these threats.”
Since 2015, photographer Giles Duley has documented land contamination in Ukraine. Duley is a landmine survivor and in 2022 became the first United Nations Global Advocate for persons with disabilities in conflict and peacebuilding situations. Earlier this year, he completed a photos series to put faces to people affected by landmines – either as survivors or mine action workers.
At the start of the invasions, Patron, a Jack Russell terrier, and his trainer Mykhailo Iliev worked to disarm unexploded Russian bombs and landmines near their home city of Chernihiv. After the State Emergency Service posted a video of Patron, sniffing around debris and sitting in Iliev's lap wearing a small bulletproof vest, he quickly became a viral hit.
Patron is still working with Iliev as a sapper, but he also become vital in teaching Mine Risk Education to children in schools. With a cartoon, book, song and YouTube channel, Patron raises awareness of the landmine issue.
Media like this is an important tool in raising awareness about mine risk and action to everyone, not just children.
Olena Kozubovska at work in the village of Novohorivka.
Olena Kozubovska is a journalist in Mykolaiv Oblast, one of the most heavily mined areas of Ukraine.
“Mine safety is my topic, and I often do stories about explosive objects, the rules of handling them and people who are involved in the mine issue in one way or another,” she says.
The majority of accidents in the region are related to the improper handling of explosive ordnance, and media plays an important role in warning and informing people about the dangers. But those stories need to inform while also being sensitive to those involved.
“When I was writing a story about two brothers who lost their legs as a result of a landmine explosion, I had to choose the right words carefully so as not to cause additional pain,” she explains. “I don’t want to harm them even more [emotionally], but it is important for me to tell their story because I believe it could save another person’s life.”
Kozubovska received training in sensitive journalism and communication for social and behavioural change, part of a nationwide UNDP and BBC Media Action project to inform the public about the dangers and to promote safe behaviour, in conjunction with the State Emergency Service.
Those dangers have two impacts - directly on the health of the people and indirectly on economy and livelihoods.
Vladyslav and Valeria Yeshchenko of the Let's See the Victory Foundation
Ihor Bezkaravainyi, Deputy Minister of Economy, Landmine Survivor and Para-Athlete
As of August 2024, there were around 1,286 civilian victims of mines and explosive remnants as a result of the war. Many who have been affected, like Giles, have become advocates for mine action and awareness.
Vladyslav Yeshchenko was working for a humanitarian demining organisation when the full-scale invasion began. He joined an Armed Forces of Ukraine sapper unit working on the frontlines in the Donbas region, working nine months without a day off. When a nearby mine self-detonated, he lost both of his eyes, fractured his skull and partially lost his hearing.
After four months in hospital and extensive rehab, Yeshchenko co-founded Let's See the Victory, a charity supporting the recovery of blind people who lost their vision due to the war. His wife Valeria is responsible for the foundation’s management.
Ihor Bezkaravainyi was injured by a landmine in 2015 during fighting in Donetsk Oblast, when his armoured personnel carrier struck an anti-tank mine. Since then, Bezkaravainyi has gone on to be a para-athlete, served as Deputy Minister of Veteran Affairs and in July 2023, was appointed Deputy Minister of Economy, with a special focus on humanitarian demining.
"When I worked in the Ministry of Veterans Affairs, we had data, and I remember that we had something like 1,500 veterans with these types of injuries [amputations]," Bezkaravainyi says. "But right now, it's thousands and thousands and thousands. It's a completely different situation."
Veterans in drone training programme.
Veterans who were affected by explosive ordnance are now being trained in the operation of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) and imagery analysis. Four “graduates” of the first training programme were offered jobs at demining charity The HALO Trust.
Part of farmer Serhii Tsvetkov's land in Mykolaiv Oblast is contaminated.
The non-physical impact is just as high, including the negative impact of landmine contamination on various sectors of the economy, especially agriculture. Ukraine ranks among the top ten wheat producers in the world; 57 countries import its grain. Before the war, almost 90 percent of wheat exports went to food-insecure countries in Africa and Asia.
Serhii Tsvetkov's farm in Mykolaiv Oblast was occupied by Russian troops, and much of his land mined. To this day, shells still regularly land on his property.
“I had 3,500 hectares, but at this moment I would say that I have half that I can use," says Tsvetkov. "I understand that it's very hard to demine this land, and I understand that it takes time. So of course, I worry for me and my colleagues, especially when we're working for the first time on a newly demined field.”
Restoring the land will contribute to people’s livelihoods, as well as their security returning home.
"Ukraine is an agricultural country,” explains Yulia Svyrydenko, First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economy. “So, we have to see how we can improve the procedures, technology and the regulations to return this land to productive use as quickly as possible.”
Serhii Pasholok, UAV Pilot, and Selim Granqvist-Ahmed, Research and Development Manager, HALO Trust.
Using the newest technology and innovations can speed up the process.
UNDP has provided the State Emergency Service with computers and staff to support land release using satellite imagery and artificial intelligence, along with equipping teams with personal protective gear, vehicles, demining tools, communication equipment and technical devices.
HALO uses UAVs to capture high-resolution imagery for surveying and inspecting minefields and looking for above-ground explosive devices such as IEDs, trip wires and fragmentation mines. This speeds up the demining process, and also lessens risk for demining teams.
UNDP is constantly testing new, innovative methods, like a series of uncrewed aerial systems and sensor combinations that integrate electro-optical sensors with artificial intelligence and machine learning for surveys of suspected hazardous areas. The tests, in collaboration with the Ministry of the Economy, achieved results as high as 78 percent for detecting items on the surface and 70 percent for detecting metal and buried items.
Women are handling a new demining initiative with technical survey dogs.
A technical survey dog can cover larger area and only detect explosive scent.
But innovation isn’t always about technology. A new initiative is using fully-trained technical service dogs; they can cover an area around 1,500 square meters per day, compared to a human deminer’s 20-50 square metres per day. The dogs ignore scrap metal and only detect explosive scent. In certain conditions, they are much faster at finding landmines than metal detectors. Women are taking the lead as their handlers.
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In the past 2.5 years, Ukraine has surveyed 35,000 square kilometres, declaring them mine free, and is developing new mine-clearing technologies. Complete clearance of mine-contaminated areas is a complex and time-consuming endeavor. UNDP supports the Ministry of Economy in their goal to minimize the impact of landmines in ten years through innovative demining and finance in mine action. The work still requires substantial investments and new demining methods for safer, faster recovery.
UNDP Ukraine is leading a comprehensive 5-year mine action programme to address the extensive contamination of Ukraine with landmines, cluster munition remnants, improvised explosive devices and explosive remnants of war. It is funded by the governments of Belgium, Croatia, Denmark, France, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, the Republic of Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom.
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