DIY landmine-clearing is putting Ukrainian farmers in danger

RUSSIA’S INVASION has turned Ukraine into the world’s most heavily mined country. In Kherson and Kharkhiv Russian soldiers left minefields when they retreated. As well as laying mines to defend their positions, they used them to disrupt Ukrainian farming. One Russian rocket system—known as zemledeliye or “agriculture”—hurls mines up to 15km away from the launcher. Farming is a pillar of Ukraine’s economy: agricultural exports were worth $27.7bn in 2021, more than 40% of total exports. But 7.5% of Ukraine’s farmland is not in use, according to NASA, following Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022. There has been a human cost, too: 170 farmers have been killed, accounting for almost 20% of civilian deaths by landmines or unexploded ordnance, says Colonel Yevhenii Zubarevskyi, head of statistics at the defence ministry’s Mine Action Directorate. With spring sowing under way, what is being done?