KYIV, Ukraine – Despite ongoing fighting in war-torn Ukraine, local farmers need to get crops in the ground this spring if there’s going to be food to harvest this fall. Plowing their fields, though, comes with the deadly risk of possibly hitting a hidden land mine.
CBN News obtained footage of one farmer hitting one of those Russian mines with his tractor. In areas liberated from Russian occupation, hundreds of thousands of mines litter the fields, and dozens have already died while trying to plant their crops.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said, “As of now, more than 170,000 square kilometers of our territory remain dangerous because of enemy mines and unexploded ordnance. A significant part of this territory is the land of our farmers, the land that has been cultivated. So today we discussed how to intensify this work: to speed up humanitarian demining, to increase relevant cooperation with our partners.”
The State Emergency Services are working overtime to help the farmers plant crops safely. Still, they need more workers and are hiring as fast as they can.
CBN News visited a Ukrainian training facility that’s bringing up the next generation of Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) specialists to try to render safe the hundreds of thousands of square kilometers that are having unexploded ordnance dumped on during this war.
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Colonel Yuriy Viktorovych Skyunuk is head of EOD for Ukraine’s Rapid Response Rescue Center. He told us, “This is a very stressful job, so we first do a psychological assessment to make sure they can handle it. From there we have shortened the training to only one month. Once they pass their exams, we send them right out to the front lines for on-the-job training.”
A Ukrainian aid worker named Zulia explained, “This unit, who consist of 77 guys, they are all operational. They are all working on the frontline. And I found in them this kind of internal peace, which I think is important for pyrotechnic or demining guys. So they really are like walking as if every step could be the last one so the psychological capacity and mentality they all invite is very unique and very powerful.”
This group has been together since long before the war started, so they have plenty of experience with demining.
Col. Skyunuk said, “Before the war started we were already very busy – more than 10,000 explosive objects were found in 2021 alone – most of them were from the 2nd World War.”
The job they have to do now is much, much more dangerous. And some of the booby-traps they find are truly insidious, clearly meant to harm innocent civilians.
“Once areas are de-occupied, we are the first in, and we find explosives wired into doors, between blankets on beds, even in children’s toys, where if you push the button, the toy explodes,” Col. Skyunuk said.
Zulia said, “They are demining, something that is invisible, and nobody expects to have it there in your toy or under your pillow, and that’s – they are doing it. They are the ones who know and can make a change.”
And doing this job takes a high emotional toll.
“When you see what they did to Ukraine and Ukrainians, it’s hard to think of them as humans,” Col. Skyunuk said.
CBN News observed one batch of missiles that are just a small fraction of the more than 14,000 munitions that have been rendered safe by the state emergency services of Ukraine. But it’s a seemingly endless chore.
Col. Skyunuk said, “I know I will be doing this for the rest of my life. We’re very motivated to clear our country of these explosives, and if we can get robotic demining equipment, we will be able to do so a lot faster.”
Still, the number of mines in the ground keeps growing as long as Russia holds any territory in Ukraine. So the greatest hope is that the Russian army will be defeated this year.
Zulia said, “I don’t want to live in a world where any humans would have the idea to harm a child or any other human beings.”
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