Danger at every step: "chaotic and complex" work of Ukrainian sappers

Forests are becoming no-go zones, except for demining experts who have warned it will take years to eliminate the threat.

In the forest on the border of the village of Zalissya, in the northeast of the capital of Ukraine, Kyiv, a wooden peg painted yellow is driven into the sandy ground next to a tree trunk crushed by a mine.

A local resident, Eduard, came to the forest to look for things looted by Russian soldiers during the occupation of Zalissya at the beginning of the war during the Kremlin's unsuccessful offensive on Kyiv, when this forest was a front. It went off on a "spanning" anti-personnel OZ mine mounted on a stretcher and died in the explosion.

While Russian trenches and foxholes can still be seen among the trees, these days the forest is occupied by demining teams working with the British demining charity Halo Trust.

The sapper follows the mine cable where it enters the forest, almost invisible to the naked eye and hidden among the leaf litter on the forest floor. Photo: Peter Beaumont/The Guardian

Further incidents in late September highlighted the risk: an ambulance ran over a mine near Balaklia, and four people walking in the forest near Chernihiv were killed when they hit a mine.

Even before Russia's full-scale invasion at the beginning of this year, sappers faced a multi-year effort to clear mines in eastern Ukraine. The country ranks fifth in the world in the number of civilian casualties from landmines and in the top three in the number of incidents involving anti-transport mines.

Local demining experts warn that even if the war ends tomorrow, it will take at least a decade to eliminate the threat.

While the efforts of Ukraine's state emergency service, the military, local and international NGOs have been very sophisticated, footage circulating on social media has also shown riskier approaches, including videos of soldiers setting off mines with branches and even thrown tires

As heavy fighting continues in the south and east of the country, sappers are seeing more and more different types of mines planted by Russian forces, including butterfly mines, which Ukrainians call "petals": small plastic anti-personnel mines that have become infamous around the world for their the ability to inflict losses long after the end of wars.

In the village of Zalissya, on the main road between Chernihiv and Kyiv, the presence of landmines in the forest has social, psychological and economic consequences - and poses an immediate risk.

Before the Russian invasion, this road was famous in the fall for elderly residents selling berries and mushrooms picked in the forest to passing motorists to supplement their meager pensions, and families walking and picnicking among the trees.

Iryna Horyushko, senior manager of the demining department, shared a map with dotted areas that need to be surveyed and cleared. This is a slow and time-consuming manual process, as the dense forest cover makes it difficult to deploy the mechanical exchange machines used in the steppe. South.

"We started working here in July. As you can see, 97% of this area is occupied by a forest with pines and shrubs. Efforts are difficult because we are very close to the highway. Local residents come to the bus stop every morning, and forestry workers also come to our forest, so we have to stop work if someone approaches.

"Because of the Russian occupation, there are many trenches and many metal signals [on mine detectors]. Due to the type of threat, this requires a lot of time and diligence. Sappers need to stand on their knees all day to clear 8-16 square meters per day."

Along the cleared path among the trees, Iryna stopped to point out a stretch—a thin thread, almost imperceptible among the leafy flour—the end of which they had not yet reached.

The switchman, whose job it is to keep an eye on the cable, uses a hand stick to scan the area ahead of where he's working at head height for more wires before dropping to his knees to search the ground ahead.

"People can't go back to normal life," said Timur Pistryuga of the Association of Ukrainian Deminers, a nonprofit that represents demining companies in the country.

“I have a friend who does not allow her child to see the father because he lives in a recently liberated city because she is afraid of the risk. This should be the season when people gather mushrooms and berries, gather firewood all over Ukraine, but the government has warned them not to go into the forest."

Pistryuga said the situation was bad even before the February invasion. "It was already serious in the east. Now the situation is probably 20 times worse. It is impossible to count because we are in constant conflict. No one knows how many mines there are.

"We find everything. Anti-personnel mines, anti-tank mines, trap mines and improvised devices. We see many incidents where people become victims. And since the Russians mined from a distance [using artillery systems to lay anti-personnel mines], there is no mapping. It's chaotic and complicated."

Andro Mathewson of the Halo Trust, which has collected data on mine incidents across Ukraine, echoed Pistryuga, noting that 450 different types of munitions, including landmines and unexploded ordnance, have been found in the country.

45-year-old Volodymyr Horbach in his auto repair shop in the village of Zalissya on the edge of the forest northeast of Kyiv. Photo: Peter Beaumont/The Guardian

"It's huge. Due to the ongoing war, this is virtually impossible to measure. It changes all the time. One of the biggest problems we face is drivers detonating anti-tank mines on unpaved roads. Another problem is to find anti-personnel mines on the paths where people go looking for food."

On Zalissa, after Edward's death, almost no one knows about the danger. In a car repair shop near his house, Volodymyr Gorbach recalled how Russian tanks entered the village in March, and the troops set up their headquarters a few houses down from his. The villagers are still living with the consequences.

"Since the Russians robbed houses and hid the stolen things in the forest, people went there after the Russians left. This is exactly what we think Edward was doing. Looking for things stolen from home.

"Would I go to the forest now? No, no, no, no. It is dangerous. The government told us not to go pick mushrooms, and the army came to my door and told me to stay away."

A few doors down, 64-year-old Liubov Kuas watched as two Czech volunteers assessed her home for repair for damage from the war that had destroyed the basement where she had been hiding for a month.

"I went to the forest for mushrooms and bathed in the lake there. But no more. My brother still goes there to collect mushrooms to sell, but he is a little crazy. No one leaves the village anymore."

On the day the guardian visited, a lone resident was sitting by the roadside, picking mushrooms she hopes to sell. However, 31-year-old Tetyana Sikachyna was harvesting in the field behind her house.

"I have no desire to go into the woods now," she said. “In the past, one of our pleasures was to walk there and have a picnic. Or go fishing. I don't know when we can come back."

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Source: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/oct/03/ukraine-de-miners-russia-war