Ukraine faces the challenge of mine clearance. Operations are progressing in the country, but experts estimate that it will take almost 12 years to complete them.
ADVERTISEMENT12 years: That’s how long it will take to remove all mines from Ukraine, according to the Mine Action Center.
Supervised by the Danish Refugee Council, the organization has been clearing mines in the most heavily mined regions of the country – Kharkiv, Donetsk and Kherson – since 2016. In Ivankiv, Kyiv Oblast, nearly 70 percent of them have been cleared.
A high-risk mission for these employees, as Pavlo Sichkarchuk, head of the organization, explains: “It is very dangerous because this area is adjacent to the village of Zhereva and people live there. And it is an access to forests and agricultural fields.”
The Mine Action Center began clearing parts of Ukraine in 2015, a year after Russia invaded Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula.
Since then, the organization’s deminers, equipped with metal detectors and wire cutters, have cleared more than 95 hectares and defused around 400 explosives.
GIPHY App Key not set. Please check settings