This story was produced in partnership with Agence France-Presse (AFP).
In a subject close to the small city of Bezymenne in southern Ukraine, Viktoria Shynkar fastidiously picks out a slim path by means of the overgrown grass in entrance of her.
This small hall of farmland in Mykolaiv Oblast shall be checked for the presence of landmines and explosive ordnance.
If clear, Shynkar – a 36-year-old who labored as a hairdresser earlier than Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022 – will transfer ahead and create one other house of the identical measurement.
Whereas she enjoys spending her days outdoors, it stays painstaking and harmful work.
Shynkar and her colleagues, who work for the demining charity the Halo Belief, uncovered 243 TM-62 Soviet-designed anti-tank mines left by the Russian military in a neighbouring subject.
A chunky and intimidating 32-centimetres in diameter and 13-cm-wide, the TM-62 incorporates 7.5 kilos of TNT and may puncture a tank if triggered.
The presence of landmines and different unexploded ordnance is a big problem in Ukraine, impacting civilians and Ukraine’s agricultural trade – a significant employer and supply of earnings to the nation.
Information Challenges
Quite a few our bodies have sought to calculate the influence of landmines on Ukraine for the reason that onset of Russia’s full invasion.
Established by the Ministry of Defence, the nation’s Nationwide Mine Motion Centre (NMAC) has produced a map that highlights areas it confirms as hazardous, are suspected of being hazardous in addition to these which were cleared or checked for hazards. It may be seen right here and within the picture beneath.
The knowledge is collated from over 80 demining teams working within the nation, which make use of individuals like Shynkar. They accumulate information from the sphere and share it with the NMAC who add it to this map made utilizing the IMSMA platform produced by the Geneva Worldwide Centre for Humanitarian Demining.
But the information the NMAC map incorporates, whereas vital, is simply partial.
For instance, it solely creates an image for the Ukrainian facet of the entrance line, and simply elements of it at that, with an space 20 kilometres from the frontline inaccessible to demining teams. Those self same demining teams are additionally not working in Russian-controlled areas, making the general image even much less clear.
Moreover, simply because an space could also be famous as not being impacted in landmine datasets doesn’t imply that it’s not in danger from mines or different explosive ordnance that won’t have detonated on influence. Some might merely not have been discovered but.
Ready for Demining Teams To Go to
This can be a concern for Ihor Kniazev, a farmer from the city of Dovhen’ke in Kharkiv Oblast. He complains to AFP that he has been ready a very long time for demining teams to go to. “Yearly, they promise ‘tomorrow, tomorrow, we are going to clear all of the fields’,” he says.
Kniazev says that he undertook the damaging job of clearing his personal fields with a metallic detector. “Everybody clears mines themselves, completely everybody,” he insists. He even says that he ran over a mine in his tractor and was fortunate to not be injured.
An interactive map exhibits the world round Dovhen’ke overlaid with information from Ukraine’s Nationwide Mine Motion Centre (NMAC). Areas shaded purple depict confirmed hazardous areas, in response to NMAC information. Areas shaded yellow depict suspected hazardous areas, in response to NMAC information. Information supply right here. Areas colored gentle inexperienced on the map depict agricultural land as outlined by Ukraine’s Ministry of Agriculture crop map device. Information supply right here. Map credit score: Logan Williams and Galen Reich/Bellingcat.
Whereas Kniazev discovered that his land was certainly contaminated, his predicament highlights an necessary problem in demining in Ukraine and for farmers returning to areas that had been beforehand occupied or close to strains of contact.
Whereas some areas are clearly recognized as being mined, there stays uncertainty round these which can be solely suspected of being mined.
A number of consultants AFP and Bellingcat spoke to warned of the financial harm that might come up from suspicions that turn into incorrect. As a 2024 UN Growth Programme report said, areas suspected of being contaminated however not really contaminated are both left alone or subjected to the identical prolonged clearance course of at what could be vital value.
Such land may in any other case be used to develop crops and assist reestablish returning farmers. Ukraine stays an enormous meals exporter regardless of the conflict, making certain the difficulty is critical past its borders.
Some farmers AFP spoke to highlighted the complexity of attempting to determine which areas had been contaminated and which weren’t.
When Detectors Develop into Ineffective
Within the city of Kamyanka in Kharkiv Oblast, Victor and Larisa Sysenko speak about their gratitude to a workforce from the Swiss Basis for Demining (FSD) who helped clear their land with the assistance of a specialist demining machine. “There have been plenty of explosions beneath that machine,” recalled Larisa.
Most of the mines had been PFM-1 anti-personnel mines, that are extra delicate than anti-tank mines and could be lethal if stepped on by individuals. The Sysenkos have additionally needed to cope with the hazard of unexploded shells, remnants of a Ukrainian assault on retreating Russian troops in 2022 that remained burrowed within the smooth soil with out exploding.
Nevertheless, in a collection of different fields close by, it was a special story as FSD deminers discovered solely three explosive remnants after an extended and time-consuming search.
One of many FSD workforce advised AFP that the metallic contamination in these fields was “so immense that our detectors grew to become ineffective, continuously beeping”. Of the 1000’s of metallic fragments detected, the overwhelming majority proved non-explosive.
An interactive map exhibits the world round Kamyanka overlaid with information from Ukraine’s Nationwide Mine Motion Centre (NMAC). Areas shaded purple depict confirmed hazardous areas, in response to NMAC information. Areas shaded yellow depict suspected hazardous areas, in response to NMAC information. Information supply right here. Areas colored gentle inexperienced on the map depict agricultural land as outlined by Ukraine’s Ministry of Agriculture crop map device. Information supply right here. Map credit score: Logan Williams and Galen Reich/Bellingcat.
Just a few hundred miles to the west within the city of Korobchyne, Mykola Pereverzev describes constructing a remote-controlled tractor to try to activate the entire mines laid in round 200 hectares of fields current there.
Pereverzev, who works for an agricultural agency, describes the tractor being blown up and constructing one other as the primary was past restore.
The land is ultimately getting used once more, and Pereverzev is placing down herbicides within the soil to sow sunflowers.
However doubts stay about what might lie beneath.
“Troopers have the saying which you could go by means of one place usually 5 occasions, and blow up on the sixth time. Even professionals blow up, so what about us? We’re simply an agriculture firm,” he says.
An interactive map exhibits the world round Korobchyne overlaid with information from Ukraine’s Nationwide Mine Motion Centre (NMAC). Areas shaded purple depict confirmed hazardous areas, in response to NMAC information. Areas shaded yellow depict suspected hazardous areas, in response to NMAC information. Information supply right here. Areas colored gentle inexperienced on the map depict agricultural land as outlined by Ukraine’s Ministry of Agriculture crop map device. Information supply right here. Map credit score: Logan Williams and Galen Reich/Bellingcat.
Falling Exports
Unsurprisingly, Ukraine’s agricultural exports have been severely impacted for the reason that onset of Russia’s full invasion.
The nation’s Agriculture Minister, Vitaliy Koval, advised AFP that “grain manufacturing has dropped from 84 million tons in 2021 to 56 million tons.”.
He continued: “Ukraine has 42 million hectares of agricultural land, together with arable land. On paper, we will domesticate 32 million hectares. However out there, non-contaminated, non-occupied land? 24 million hectares.”
“After we come to Brussels (to arrange Ukraine’s future EU membership), they present us an infographic saying now we have 42 million hectares. However the actuality, sadly, is 24 million,” Koval stated.
Not all of that is right down to the presence of landmines or explosive ordnance, in fact. Different components additionally contribute to agricultural output. These embody land being situated in areas of ongoing preventing, farm tools being destroyed or farmers becoming a member of the armed forces, fleeing to security or not returning.
But landmines stay a big a part of the combo.
Koval’s workplace said that simply over 123,000 km2 of land nonetheless must be assessed for the presence of landmines or explosives. That could be a large space, nearly the identical measurement as Greece, a lot of which stays inaccessible alongside the 1,500 km frontline.
When it comes to agricultural areas which can be accessible and have been assessed to date, nonetheless, 14,200 hectares was outlined by the Ministry of Agriculture as being contaminated. As of Might 2025, 11,800 hectares of this space had been cleared, the ministry stated.
To be clear, although, these figures don’t bear in mind areas that stay suspected of being contaminated or the big frontline space that’s at present inaccessible to demining teams, all of which can must be assessed sooner or later sooner or later. If Ukraine was to withdraw from the Ottawa Conference on anti-personnel mines, because it stated it might final week, this doubtless would add one other layer of complexity to future demining efforts. Russia by no means signed the 1997 conference and several other of Ukraine’s neighbors have not too long ago signaled they might go away the treaty as effectively.
Making Decisions
Paul Heslop is Programme Supervisor for Mine Motion on the UN Growth Programme in Ukraine. Like all consultants who had been interviewed for this text, he’s cautious about making exact estimations as to the dimensions of the landmine problem given the size of the frontline and the numerous unknowns that stay in a rustic at conflict.
But he acknowledges to AFP that it’s vital, with doubtless hundreds of thousands of mines or unexploded shells within the floor in Ukraine.
However he provides that by organising and being strategic about which areas are prioritised for evaluation, land that’s of probably the most significance can doubtlessly be put again to productive use first.
Probably the most contaminated land will fall throughout the space closest to the frontline, he advised AFP. Simply past that, there may be nonetheless an space that’s nonetheless considerably impacted, though much less intensely, he provides. Inside this space “you’ve got crucial infrastructure, bridges, energy strains, energy vegetation … transformers, colleges, hospitals. They must be cleared first,” he says.
By the use of instance, Heslop factors to farming areas north of Kyiv or between the Ukrainian capital and Kharkiv that had been occupied within the early days of the conflict. “Loads of that land has now been assessed as not contaminated … or the areas that had been contaminated have now been cleared.”
Nonetheless, some areas – particularly alongside the present entrance line space – shall be being assessed for a very long time, he acknowledges.
Pete Smith is one other outstanding hand within the demining sport.
He oversees the work of the Halo Belief and their 1,500 employees in Ukraine. Like Heslop, he recognises the dimensions of the problem, suggesting Ukraine often is the most mined nation on this planet. However he additionally sees hope in new technological options that will quicken the tempo of demining.
Talking to AFP, he stated: “We’re capable of innovate and convey expertise reminiscent of satellite tv for pc imagery, drone imagery, all serving to us simply to drill right down to establish the place these pockets of focus of landmines and explosive ordnance are.”
He describes analysts taking a look at drone and satellite tv for pc photographs “pixel by pixel” to find mines and using AI algorithms to help the search. But whereas enthused by such developments, Smith provides: “It’s not an industrial course of but.”
“We’re getting low-level advantages,” he provides. “However I believe it’s that space the place we are going to proceed to develop.”
In the intervening time, these out within the subject, like Viktoria Shynkar, will proceed the job of demining Ukraine.
As of Might 31, 2025, she had been with the Halo Belief for a 12 months. It’s a place she feels snug in regardless of the hazard that comes with the job.
“Not as soon as have I regretted [taking on the work], in no way,” she says. “I just like the job very a lot. As a result of there are various good individuals right here, and I really feel like I’m resting at work.”
On high of that, the influence of what she is doing offers her satisfaction.
“There’s numerous contamination … and farmers can’t work, can’t develop crops,” she says.
“We actually want this, so I need to assist nonetheless I can, in order that our nation can prosper.”
Eoghan Macguire, Gyula Csák, Logan Williams and Galen Reich contributed to this report for Bellingcat.
Boris Bachorz reported for AFP with contributions from Yulia Surkova, Kseniia Tomchik and Oleksii Obolensky.
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