Donbas Reality Check: Who Demines Ukraine's War Zone?
According to the Ministry of Defense, 16,000 square meters of both sides of the demarcation line in the Donbas are consideredcontaminated.
Oleksandr Maltsev is a deminer. He lives in Severodonetsk with his wife and children. His daughter and son know what Maltsev does for a living but don't fully understand how dangerous his job is.
Maltsev works with the Danish Demining Group and clears the outskirts of Lysychansk – where there was heavy fighting at the start of the war – from ammunition.
The Danish group works on humanitarian demining under international norms. This differs from military demining in a way that it involves full clearance of the battlefields – all done by hand. The de-miners clear both ammunition and the debris left from it. Despite it being a slow and time-consuming process, it ensures virtually 100% safety for the areas after.
According to the Ministry of Defense, 16,000 square meters of both sides of the demarcation line in the Donbas are considered "contaminated." Throughout more than five years of the war, over 1,000 people were injured from ammunition explosions. Of 1,000, 130 were children. It will take 10 years to clear the war zone.
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