Clearing the Path: Ukraine’s battle against landmines

After a month of training, Antonina is now clearing mines in the Mykolaiv region. Photo: Théodore Donguy

In southern Ukraine, the August sun beats down on the deminers. Despite the 40-degree heat, they must remain focused. The ground is infested with Russian TM-62 mines. From eight in the morning to two in the afternoon Antonina has to keep her vest and visor on for safety. Just two years ago, these fields in Mykolaiv Oblast were the front line, separating Ukrainian forces in the west from the Russians in the east.

Another silhouette emerges from the tall grass just a few metres from a dusty road. It is Tatyana. At 34, this mother and former employee of Mykolaiv’s civilian airport is now a deminer. For the past two months, she has been employed by Norwegian People’s Aid (NPA), a major global demining organization.

In the morning, Tatyana does not have time to say goodbye to her two children. The convoys of deminers leave the headquarters in central Mykolaiv at seven in the morning. During the summer, to avoid the 35-degree afternoon heat, they work in the field for six hours from eight to two. “The hardest part of this job? Being out in the sun with a visor and a heavy vest,” Tatyana jokes.

Originally from Donbas, Tatyana has known war for ten years, ever since Russian troops invaded in 2014. For her, this demining mission is a way to contribute to the war effort against Russia. “I want my children to grow up in a normal country,” she says, putting away her metal detector. In 2015, she said she and her family narrowly escaped a Russian BM-21 rocket launcher attack in Donetsk.

Under the scorching sun, Tatyana has to keep her protective kevlar vest on at all times while working in the field. Photo: Théodore Donguy

Here, 40 kilometres from the front, Tatyana continues to see ballistic missiles fly overhead while she works to clear mines. “They often come from Crimea and will be intercepted by our air defences,” explains one of the technical field managers, an international NPA worker from Nepal. That morning, one Ukrainian ballistic missile was fired, leaving behind one of the few traces in the clear blue sky.

Ukraine: the most mined country in the world

By the end of 2023, Ukraine became one of the most mined countries in the world, surpassing even Afghanistan. According to the Slovak think tank Globsec, over 142,000 square kilometres of Ukraine’s territory is potentially contaminated, roughly a quarter of the country. These areas are primarily in the east and south. Today, nearly 10.7 million people in Ukraine have been affected by mines, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Since 2014, over 1200 Ukrainians have been killed by landmines.

Russia has deployed a wide range of explosive devices on a massive scale. A Human Rights Watch report notes that these include several types of landmines, such as anti-personnel, anti-tank, and anti-vehicle mines.

The Russians deploy TM-62 mines in a line to increase their chances of hitting Ukrainian tanks. Photo: Théodore Donguy

The mines that Tatyana and the NPA team are working to remove in the Mykolaiv region are TM-62 anti-vehicle mines. These Soviet-era mines theoretically require a pressure of 150 kilogrammes to detonate. “Theoretically, you could step on them, but I wouldn’t recommend it,” says Marijn van Broekhoven, a member of the NPA team who previously worked in Iraq before coming to Ukraine.

A monumental and lengthy task

The efforts of NGOs like NPA, working in coordination with the Ukrainian authorities, are vital to restoring the Ukrainian land to its people as quickly as possible.

“If we don’t do it, who will? These are our lands, our fields – we must clean up our country,” says Ilhor, a deminer who worked in an agricultural machinery factory before the war.

Ilhor was already passionate about metal detecting before the full-scale invasion. He helped dig trenches when Russian forces were at Mykolaiv’s doorstep in April 2022. Now, with this work, he combines his passion with service to his country. Demining will take decades, but at 40, he proudly states, “I’ll do it until my health no longer allows it!”

Tatyana and Ilhor are among 260 NPA members in Ukraine. Across all organizations and the military, there are around 3,000 deminers in the country. Like Tatyana and Antonina, many women work with these NGOs. In Ukraine, they make up 30 per cent of the deminers in this typically male-dominated field.

When her detector beeps, Antonina must carefully dig to check for a mine. Photo: Théodore Donguy

The lengthy demining process is governed by numerous standards and common procedures. Detection teams – also known as “non-technical survey” – are responsible for identifying potentially contaminated areas. They use drones and, more recently, AI. By analyzing troop movements in previously contested areas, they can locate lines of mines that are often placed by Russian forces defending their captured ground.

Once contamination is confirmed, deminers are deployed. Metre by metre, the land is inspected using metal detectors and the meticulous work of the teams.

Dogs and machines to clear mines “ten times faster”

To speed up the process, NPA has introduced additional demining tools. Since November 2023, mine-detection dogs have been able to sniff out buried explosives thanks to their highly developed sense of smell. And since April 2024, mechanical assets have been deployed to process land more quickly.

Using a remote control, NPA team members manoeuvre the machines over risky areas. Like a combine harvester, the machine churns the earth, reducing the danger. In the Mykolaiv region, four machines and eight dogs are deployed to assist the teams.

All day long, the hum of the machine can be heard in the distance. Photo: Norwegian People’s Aid

Marijn van Broekhoven explains that “Thanks to the addition of mine-detection dogs and machines, the clearance teams in May 2024 increased their productivity more than tenfold compared to their most productive month without these tools.” He says that with the use of dogs and machines, NPA expects that by the end of this calendar year they will release over one million square metres of land, which can then be returned to farmers and communities in Mykolaiv.

Despite this, the process is still slow. “When a machine is used, we still need to use dogs or manual deminers to verify the land afterwards. We can’t afford to make mistakes, but the overall process is much faster now,” says Marijn. Once the land is cleared, it is returned to farmers, who can restore their income after more than two years of inactivity.

Ukrainian agriculture severely impacted

Ukrainian farmers have been hit hardest by the mines. In addition to making the land unusable and dangerous, the mines have killed over 170 farmers. This represents nearly 20 per cent of all civilian deaths caused by mines or unexploded ordnance.

Agriculture is a cornerstone of Ukraine’s economy. In 2021, agricultural exports totalled 27.7 billion US dollars, accounting for over 40 per cent of the country’s total exports. However, according to NASA, 7.5 per cent of Ukraine’s arable land has been unused since February 2022.

The impact goes beyond Ukraine. The government estimates that the contaminated lands are used to provide food for around 81 million people, mainly in low and middle-income countries. Ukrainian wheat is essential for the country’s economy and is primarily exported to Africa and Asia.

In the area where Tatyana and Ihor have been working recently, NPA estimates that their demining efforts will directly benefit 45 farmers and their family members who used the land to grow wheat before the war. In turn, the demining will help the 300 residents of surrounding villages, for whom agriculture is their primary source of income.

These farmers have slowly returned to villages completely destroyed by fighting. Few homes were spared from explosives. At two in the afternoon, leaving the demining zone in a 4×4, one deminer gazes sadly out the window at a school that will not welcome students for many years to come.

The interviewees have requested to be identified by their first names for their own protection.

Théodore Donguy is an independent journalist based in Paris. He covers human rights and war in Eastern Europe. He has been published in European outlets including VoxEurop, Paris Match, Hampshire Chronicle and France 24.

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civil protection, demining, eastern Ukraine, Russian invasion of Ukraine, Ukraine at war