the delicate demining operations in Kherson, where “every day of war represents a year of demining”

After a year of war in Ukraine, civilians still live in fear of bombardments. This is not the only threat for the inhabitants since the Russian army left mines before entrenching themselves. “Two thirds of my fields are mined. I can even see the mines in the ground”regrets Igor, a farmer whose village, about thirty kilometers from Kherson, was the scene of heavy fighting last fall during the Ukrainian counter-offensive.

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Igor, who saw his house destroyed by several successive bombardments, owns one and a half hectares of land that has become almost uncultivable. Before leaving the scene, the Russian soldiers laid mines everywhere, on the roads, in the fields, and even in some houses. “This year, I will not be able to sow, or maybe later, fears the Ukrainian farmer who no longer dares to walk in his field. It scares me, I don’t want to die!”

Deminers criss-cross the Kherson region. With their metal detectors, they examine the smallest square centimeter of earth. Painstaking work that has only just begun. “Today we worked in a village that was surrounded by mines, explains Serghii, the head of a demining unit. There are still many fields and mined houses. Every day of war is a year of demining. So it will take time.”

“Of 600,000 hectares of liberated territory in the region, we have cleared only 3,000 hectares.”

The spokesman of the Kherson regional administration

on franceinfo

In this rural region where agriculture remains one of the main sectors of activity, many farmers risk losing a large part of their income this year because they cannot cultivate their land. According to Oleksandr Tolokonikov, spokesman for the Kherson regional administration, several farmers have already died because of the mines: “It’s a big problem, because we lack equipment and personnel to carry out these demining operations”he concludes.