Formerly a construction worker and a manicurist, now deminers. How civilians take part in demining
Vitalii kneels, bends to the ground, and slowly moves his palm in the grass. His gaze is concentrated. He peers into each blade of grass to see if death is lurking there. He knows that it can lurk anywhere.
“I have many friends in the military. Some of them have already hit mines. Some lost limbs, some died. This also influenced me to join humanitarian demining,” the man says.
He moves literally centimeter by centimeter. His small fenced plot in one of the de-occupied villages of the Kharkiv region looks like a drop in the bucket against the backdrop of endless overgrown fields: once sown with grain, but now with mines hiding in the dry weeds.
In one day, one deminer manually surveys about 20 square meters of land — the size of a spacious room. Only when you see with your own eyes how thorough this process really is, you realize that the predictions of more than one century to clean up Ukraine are not fantasy, but rather a sad reality. Especially when there is a catastrophic shortage of specialists.
Why civilians join humanitarian demining, whether it is difficult to undergo training, and how a deminer differs from a sapper — as told by those for whom mine searching has become not just a new job, but also a new vocation.
“Vitalik, come on, you have to do something useful”
Vitalii Varnavskyi is 34 years old. He is a native Kharkiv resident. Until recently, he worked as a builder. Together with his father, they built houses from scratch. Until both their facilities and their own homes were on the line of fire.
“The house on the right was smashed, the house on the left was hit by a shell directly. Thank God, it didn't hit us,” the man says about their country house in the Zolochiv district on the border. They were also lucky with the apartment in Saltivka: it survived, even though it was located in the most damaged area of Kharkiv.
Of course, it became impossible to work. With this war, for some time I could not find myself at all... And then I said to myself: “No, Vitalik, come on, you can't just sit around and do nothing. You have to do something useful.”Vitalii Varnavskyi, deminer
One day, he came across a vacancy at The Halo Trust, an international organization. It has been engaged in humanitarian demining of Ukrainian lands for 9 years in a row. They were looking for deminers, and Vitalii responded. He was selected, then trained, and passed the exam. A month later, Vitalii went into the field for the first time.
No specific skills are required to become a deminer. Essentially, the job is just to search for explosive devices. It is the job of sappers to remove and neutralize them. The latter's training is a bit more thorough: it takes about two months to become a sapper.
The main challenge in the deminers' work is that they need to be extremely enduring. Deminers have to work in heat, cold, rain, and snow. However, Vitalii is sure the efforts are worth it.
“It's physically hard work, sometimes tiring. But in the morning you get up and go with renewed vigor. It is inspiring to know that you are doing an important job. Centimeter by centimeter, but you are demining the land. And the thought that people will grow something here later, or maybe someone will build something for themselves, warms my heart…”
“Frogs” on 30-meter tripwires
We are in Hrakovo, one of the most destroyed and mined villages in the Kharkiv region. After six months of occupation and fighting, there are no surviving houses here. On both sides of the road to the minefield are ruins of houses. Some of them look like they will be swallowed up by the grass in a little while.
On the spot, they give a briefing: only those in protective gear — a safety vest, and an anti-debris visor — are allowed to enter. Not a single step to the side. The safe passage is marked with wooden stakes with white and red paint. Behind them is a deadly danger.
Here, where we passed, there were grenades on tripwires in the houses right on the gates. They would have gone off as soon as the people returned and opened the gate. We are not inspecting the houses yet. Now the priority is agricultural fields, where farmers are waiting, as well as places where the most people can walk.Illia Sazonov, task group commander in Hrakovo
The most common findings are anti-personnel and anti-vehicle mines, tripwires, and unexploded ordnance. Unexploded ordnance is at least relatively easy to spot. But other deadly explosives are extremely difficult for an untrained person to spot.
During a thorough inspection of the area, the deminers notice a dark green anti-personnel mine, completely embedded in the ground and already overgrown with grass. And then they notice a grenade with a thin wire stretching from a small stake nearby — a type of tripwire. I was able to see them only when they pointed them out to me.
The tripwire usually reaches 30 meters, with a mine in the middle. Most often, the occupiers placed so-called “frogs” here. When triggered, such a mine jumps up to a meter — 2,400 fragments fly everywhere, leaving nothing alive within a radius of three dozen meters.
The deminers admit that the “Stop! Mines” signs do not always stop local residents. Civilians often hit mines here. In particular, on the “petals” that still cover the center of the village. The explosive ordnance level of contamination is so dense that the deminers' work is never-ending. Deminers have been working in three areas for a year now, and it will take at least as long to complete them. In total, 23 sites need to be cleared in this village. The total area is almost 1.5 million square meters.
“It's so slow because we consider every metal detector signal as a direct threat. We don't know whether it's an ordinary screw or a mine,” explains Vitalii, a deminer, without looking up from the ground.
We work like this: first, we look for tripwires with our hands and a probe; then we check with a detector; then we cut off the vegetation. We move forward 30 centimeters at a time.Vitalii Varnavskyi, deminer
Vitalii's group has 8 deminers in this area. Each one is at a safe distance of at least 50 meters from the other. “Personal safety is above all,” the man adds. He emphasizes that they are engaged in humanitarian demining. Military and operational demining is handled by sappers from the Armed Forces, the Emergency Service, or the National Police. Humanitarian demining is distinguished by this gradual and “thoughtful” approach to clearing large areas of territory. In fact, it is currently being carried out by international non-profit and some domestic commercial organizations.
Just as a fisherman is happy when he catches a fish, so am I when I find a mine or other explosive object. Only this is not just a pleasure, it also saves many human lives and health.Vitalii Varnavskyi, deminer
From a manicurist to a robocar operator
At the site in the neighboring village, there is a humming noise, as if from a tractor. In fact, a ten times smaller machine is working there - a robocut. It cuts vegetation, which significantly speeds up demining. It is remotely controlled by a fragile girl. She shows me the control panel: “Here, you need to set how the working body will work; and here are the adjustments, speed, gears, fan...”
I listen attentively, but I am quietly surprised. After all, I know that before that, she had worked as a manicurist and had never had to deal with technology.
Valeriia Kotenko is 23 years old. She is originally from Kramatorsk, the Donetsk region. She moved to Kyiv region with her family two years ago. And she decided to change her career dramatically.
I can't say that I was highly motivated from the beginning. I was just looking for a job. But since I tried it, I have gained real motivation and awareness of this mission.Valeriia Kotenko, deminer
Valeriia's friends had already worked for international humanitarian mine-clearance organization The HALO Trust. She was interested in their experience and decided to try it herself. She quickly completed the basic course as a deminer and then as a paramedic. She admits that she didn't expect to be so enthusiastic about it. The fact that she had to work in the Kharkiv region did not stop her either. So She is away for 10 days on a business trip, and her husband understands.
“He knew about this organization before, because a close friend worked there. He said: ‘If you want, you can try it.’ But in reality, he didn't think I would be able to do it and stay here,” Valeriia laughs. She assures: “After a year of business trips, we've gotten used to it, we're fine.”
Valeriia's mother was the most shocked by this change of job. However, the deminer reassured her that the job was safe. Over time, her mother came to terms with her daughter's new profession. And soon her son decided to become a deminer as well. Valeriia recalls that she persuaded her brother to enroll in the next training course. Before that, Oleh worked as a turner. Now he has been demining fields in the Chernihiv region for a year, while his sister is demining in the Kharkiv region.
“Our mom was very worried. She told us: ‘Be careful out there.’ At first, I was also worried about my sister. She is a girl, but she got such a job. Now I see that some of the girls here work better than the boys,” says Valeriia's brother.
One day, while working in the field, she saw an unusual machine for the first time — a robocut. At first, she watched from the side, and then she started to approach it during a break and ask how it worked. In particular, whether girls could work on it. When Valeriia told her managers that she wanted to learn to be an operator, they refused at first.
They said it was hard. They said it was not a job for a girl to carry a shield and 20-kilogram canisters. But I was persistent. I asked and asked for two months. Then I was finally enrolled in the course. I was the only girl out of five people. As it turned out, I like working with equipment.Valeriia Kotenko, deminer
In the morning, the deminer arrives at the site with her team. There, she inspects the robocut, checks the oil levels, moves the equipment into place, and sets up a special protective armored shield behind which she works. The control is remote — using a remote control and virtual reality glasses. There are two cameras on the machine itself. The team leader monitors the process through a tablet.
The robot does not replace manual demining: deminers still have to go through the area afterwards. But by cutting the grass and removing the threat of tripwires, in which case it takes over the detonation, it speeds up the work tenfold.
“We do it for ourselves”
Our interlocutors no longer see themselves in their previous civilian professions. They say that demining is a job for years.
It seems to me, that I did manicure in some past life. Now I am not interested in it at all. It is at this time that I see myself in demining. I've been working for almost a year now, but I don't feel tired. On the contrary, it is not just a job, it is a feeling that you are doing something important. For safety, for ourselves, we do what we do.Valeriia Kotenko, deminer
Vitalii, a former construction worker, shares a similar opinion: “Time will tell, but for now I'm not up to it. Unfortunately, we are all living like on a volcano right now.” Now he has a goal of becoming a demining team leader.
The man assures us that anyone can join this cause. Among the deminers are former office workers, teachers, and police officers. Most of them are local. Some, like Valeriia, travel from other regions on business trips. Their “watch” lasts 10 days, followed by 4 days of rest.
Vitalii complains that demining needs more specialists: “We are currently recruiting, but there are still not enough people. Sometimes not everyone passes the exams because it is not for everyone.”
We need people. The area is large, there are a lot of fields. So everyone should at least try. We need to do something useful. I did it myself and I can assure you that it is safe.Vitalii Varnavskyi, deminer