In Ukraine, the Long Road to Demining 

In the Ukrainian countryside, between Mykolaiv and Kherson, the intense August heat gives the landscape a desert-like appearance. But this calm is deceptive—the land is littered with dozens of Russian TM-62 mines. Just two years ago, these wheat fields were the front line, separating Ukrainian forces in the west from Russians in the east.

A silhouette emerges from the tall grass just a few meters from a dusty road. It’s 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 the Norwegian People’s Aid (NPA), a major global demining organization.

In the morning, Tatyana doesn’t have time to say goodbye to her two children. The convoys of deminers leave the headquarters in central Mykolaiv at 7:00 AM. During the summer, to avoid the 100°F afternoon heat, they work in the field from 8 AM to 2 PM. “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 10 years, 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.

Here, 40 kilometers 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 defenses,” explains one of the team leaders, an international NPA worker from Nepal. That morning, one Ukrainian ballistic missile was fired, leaving behind one of the few traces in the blue sky.

The Most Mine-Contaminated Country in the World

By the end of 2023, Ukraine became one of the most mine-affected countries globally, surpassing Afghanistan. According to the Slovak think tank Globsec, over 142,000 square kilometers of Ukraine’s territory is still 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 OCHA. 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 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 kilograms to detonate. “Technically, 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 and Syria before coming to Ukraine.

A Monumental and Lengthy Task

The efforts of NGOs like NPA, working in coordination with the Ukrainian army, are vital to restoring 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 500 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% of the deminers in this typically male-dominated field.

Once contamination is confirmed, deminers are deployed. Meter by meter, the land is inspected using metal detectors and the meticulous work of the teams. At this conventional pace, with traditional tools, Globsec estimates it would take 757 years to fully demine Ukraine.

Dogs and Machines to Clear Mines “Ten Times Faster”

To speed up the process, NPA has begun using new 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, machines like rollers and shredders have been deployed to neutralize mines quickly.

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

“If we don’t do it, who will? These are our lands, our fields—we must clean up our country.”

Ilhor

Van Broekhoven explains: “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 dogs and machines, demining teams can now clear around 10,000 square meters per month.

The process is still slow, however. “Our teams still need to go over the area with a conventional detector afterward. We can’t afford to make mistakes,” says van Broekhoven. Once the land is cleared, it is returned to farmers, who can restore their income after more than 2 years of inactivity.

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% of all civilian deaths caused by mines or unexploded ordnance.

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

The impact goes beyond Ukraine. The government estimates that the contaminated lands used to provide food for 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 Igor have been working recently, NPA estimates that their demining efforts will benefit 45 farmers 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 the primary source of income.

These farmers have slowly returned to villages completely destroyed by fighting. Few homes were spared from explosives. At 2:00 PM, leaving the demining zone in a 4×4, one deminer gazes sadly out the window at a school that won’t welcome students for many years to come.

* requested to be identified by their first names for their protection.

Cover image: When her detector beeps, Antonina must carefully dig to check for a mine. Photo by Théodore Donguy, August 20, 2024.