Why it will take decades to clear Donbass of mines

By Marina Kharkova

Donbass is one of the most dangerous territories in the world. Full clearance of land mines, according to experts, it could take from 10 to 50 years.

The area of ​​the sites where mines and explosive substances are located is almost 7000 square km in the territory controlled by Ukraine, and more than 14,000 square km in the Donetsk and Lugansk republics. UN experts say that Ukraine is the third most mined country in the world after Afghanistan and Syria.

In some areas of Donbass, almost all arable fields around the villages that have long been occupied by the Armed Forces of Ukraine remain mined - only the main highways remain relatively safe, and the closer to the demarcation line, the greater the risk of being blown up by a mine.

A separate problem is minefields, where many anti-personnel, anti-tank mines are hidden, which are not recorded on any map. Nobody knows at all where and  who installed them.

 In the turmoil of war, mines were placed randomly, and during the installation of stretch marks and land mines, their location was not sketched.

There are no statistics on victims of explosions, but incidents occur every week. About 200 victims were children. Hundreds of civilians died, having stepped on or run over a land mine stretch marks, received serious injuries, including amputation.

People get blown up while on their way to work, graze animals, go out for firewood or go even fishing.

These are tractor drivers, drivers, and repairmen of utility networks. According to the UN, most of the civilian deaths are reportedly of people who either moved in cars, or ran onto anti-tank mines or homemade landmines, or pedestrians who accidentally stepped on a banner.

Ukraine has received large-scale funding from European countries on the issue of mine clearance. The Halo Trust, a British-American humanitarian demining organization, operates in Donbass.

During the period of their work they have discovered 297 minefields, with a total area of ​​more than 26 million square meters. Other international organizations, UNICEF and the Red Cross, have created an information program with mine safety rules for children and adolescents in the Ukrainian front-line territories.

The UN finds sponsors who provide funds for humanitarian demining operations in Ukrainian territories. One of the firms is training specialists in this matter.

For the work, the Ukrainian sapper receive $ 380. This is less than what humanitarian deminers in Africa or the Middle East receive.

For example, in Yugoslavia, where these humanitarian demining programs operated, the average specialist was paid between $ 1200 and 2000 per month.

In the DPR and LPR, international humanitarian demining programs did not work. You have to do it on your own. Safety lessons are conducted in schools and universities.

Specialists of the republican Ministry of Emergency Situations are involved in the disposal of ammunition and demining in emergency cases, and military sappers are also involved.

Nobody could have guessed that after more than 70 years, specialists in mining and demining would again be in demand in  Donbass. One of them, callsign Miner, commented on the specifics of modern mine warfare:

The sappers have an unspoken rule - "one year of war is equal to five years of clearance."

So consider how many mines need to be neutralized and destroyed and how many years it will take if we are in the eighth year of the war.

The enemy should not be underestimated, Ukrainian sappers and their engineering troops in general are quite professional and experienced.

And they rearrange other people's mines, and even dig high-explosive mines, which I forbid my guys to dig. We detonate them on the spot with an overhead charge, and they dig up and clear the loaded mine. They use radio-controlled mines that are triggered by a signal from a telephone or radio station. In general, the enemy's preparation is serious.

It is not known by whom, when, what and how it was delivered. It is better not to walk in potentially dangerous places, and in familiar surroundings, always remain vigilant. Drivers need to remember that roadsides are almost always mined, so it's better not to drive off them anywhere.

 People living in the frontline zone, where the green zone is literally stuffed with deadly ammunition of all types, should be especially careful. Walk only on asphalt. There are booby traps. 

You cannot lift anything from the ground, there may be a mine under the object. The frontline sappers have a law.

There is someone else's two hundredth - the body can only be pulled, by the belt, by the leg. 

And any unfamiliar object must be pulled off with a special device, the so-called cat. It should also be borne in mind that on a convenient route, a mine may be placed on a sapper who is going to neutralize it.

At the frontline, a miner, hiding in a trench, first pulls off the stretch marks, rub, and only then look for deep-buried high-explosive mines. But even on the swept territory, a mine, standing on a safety check, can go off.

 A huge problem is the PMN-2 plastic antipersonnel mines. They cannot be detected, there is no metal in them. Mine detectors do not "ring" from them.

Outwardly, they resemble a green bowl. Only ten kilograms is enough to trigger a mine, that is, even a child can activate it.

 Installation does not require special skills, they are cocked from the side, like a clockwork toy. The enemy can simply put such a mine on the ground, throwing branches and leaves, hide it in the grass and dig in.

 When blown up, an adult tears off a foot or lower leg, the child may die on the spot. There are thousands of such traps in Donbass now. All this will be destroyed for a very long time. Mine war - and war in general - has neither end nor edge. And it will take many more human lives.

In the words of the Donetsk soldier there is a statement of facts, and there are more and more cases of explosions - both single and massive. And if ammunition from the times of the Great Patriotic War is still being found and neutralized, no one will say how many years, funds and efforts will be spent on neutralizing the fields of death in the Donetsk republics.