‘Mine’ your step at village in Ukraine with explosive past

Chugynka: Outside the picturesque Ukrainian village of Chugynka, dozens of men and women in bulletproof vests kneel down and explore every inch of ground.

The faded grass lies in the middle of a war zone that has become one of the most mine-riddled areas in the world over the past few years.

“The whole village used to use the field for making hay and grazing cows,” said Anatoliy Radchenko, a former entrepreneur who now leads the group of around 30 facemasked workers.

“We are doing this mine clearing for them, so that one day we can say – guys, you can use it, everything is fine here now.”

The pine-fringed village’s former pasture is cordoned off and marked by signs reading “Danger, mines” in English.

“For someone driving a tractor there’s always the risk of a mine exploding,” says Andriy, a 32-yearold farmer who lives in Chugynka with his family and earns his living from producing grain.

“But you have to work anyway,” he sighs, after telling how a farmer he knows was injured during the harvest this year.

Chugynka is just 25km west of the frontline in a war between Ukraine government forces and Russianbacked separatists.

The conflict has claimed more than 10,000 lives since it broke out in 2014 following a pro-Europe uprising in Kiev and Moscow’s annexation of the Crimean peninsula.

Russia denies claims it is funnelling troops and arms across the border to fuel the conflict, despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary.

Meanwhile, the UN says that more than 1,600 civilians have been killed or wounded by mines during the war.

That includes children – three of whom died while another was injured in the area in September.

A further two million Ukrainians, including 220,000 children, remain at risk.

Equipped with metal detectors, the group near Chugynka hunt for mines, marking the spot where they find one with a small flag.

They immediately report the find to emergency services that can neutralise the threat.

The Ukrainian de-mining team was formed in 2016 and is funded by The Swiss Foundation for Mine Action (FSD).

The work is dangerous and slow, however. In six weeks, the team has covered less than 5% of the 74,000sq m (18-acre) area.

Two other humanitarian organisations, The HALO Trust and Danish Demining Group work in mine clearance in Ukraine. But the trio only work in areas of the country controlled by Kiev.

The Organization for Security and Co-Operation in Europe estimated in a report last week that 7,000sq km are mined in Eastern Ukraine.

That makes it “one of the most densely mined areas in the world”, the OSCE says.

“I think we will suffer for a very long time,” Ivan Prykhodko, the separatist head of the city of Gorlivka in Donetsk, said. — AFP