Educational Program: The Deadly Impact of Landmines in Ukraine and Around the World
One year since Russian leader Vladimir Putin ordered a full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the country has been in the throes of a humanitarian crisis that has forced Europe to reevaluate its position in the global pecking order. That the war is violent and bloody should come as no surprise, though many might be perturbed to learn of the deadly impact landmines have had on the war effort.
In November 2022, Human Rights Watch (HRW) called on governments worldwide to “reiterate their support for the international treaty banning antipersonnel landmines” and urged those nations that had not ratified the 1997 Ottawa Treaty to do so speedily. The organization’s call to action came after a previous analysis reported that Russian forces “have used at least seven types of antipersonnel mines in at least four regions of Ukraine.”
Landmines are controversial because they are largely indiscriminate weapons. The Ottawa Treaty banning landmines was championed by the late Diana, Princess of Wales, and was signed mere months after her death. But the issue of landmines still persists and many countries are still “contaminated by antipersonnel mines, including 33 treaty members such as Greece and Ukraine,” per Humanity & Inclusion UK.
To learn more about this topic, The Association of Foreign Press Correspondents (AFPC-USA) came together for an educational program to learn from two experts: Chris Whatley, Executive Director of the HALO Trust, USA, and Michael Tirre, Executive Director of the U.S. State Department, Bureau of Political-Military Affairs (PM/WRA), Office of Weapons Removal and Abatement.
Whatley noted that the HALO Trust is “the world's largest humanitarian mine clearance organization.” Tirre, meanwhile, pointed out that PM/WRA “is responsible for overseeing our humanitarian demining assistance to Ukraine.”
This educational program was held on Tuesday, February 21 and was moderated by AFPC-USA partner and supporter Mitzi Perdue, who has previously used her public recognition to advocate on behalf of Ukraine’s stolen children and spoken about her experiences visiting the country in previous pieces on the organization’s media platform.
The AFPC-USA is solely responsible for the content of this educational program. Below, readers will find a summary of some of the most important takeaways from the presentation.
ON THE HALO TRUST AND ITS INITIATIVES
Whatley noted that the HALO Trust “the world's largest humanitarian mine clearance organization,” with 12,000 employees in 30 countries.
He pointed out that efforts to clear landmines have come “a long way” since Princess Diana visited an Angola minefield in 1997 and that “there's still good things that happen in the multilateral system” despite developments like the Russians suspending their participation in START, the bilateral treaty between the United States and Russia that reduces and limits strategic offensive arms.
“There are untold numbers of people who are living lives of safety and dignity,” he continues, because the world “came together” and “created a global norm against the use of landmines.” Despite this, there are many “improvised explosive devices,” such as in Afghanistan, and efforts to clear them continue. Additionally, there are countries such as Russia and Myanmar that use landmines “as a key part of their arsenal.”
ON LANDMINE USE IN UKRAINE
The war in Ukraine has been going on much longer than February 2022, said Whatley, and efforts to remove landmines have persisted for much of the last decade due to fighting in Ukraine’s eastern regions. Since Russian forces pulled out of the Kyiv region, “the vast majority of our efforts have been clearing in those suburbs around Kyiv.”
“The level of [landmine] contamination in Ukraine is like nothing we’ve ever seen in this century,” said Whatley, who said that just months ago the area that is suspected of being contaminated was about the size of Florida and is now “about the size of the United Kingdom, including Northern Ireland.”
The Ukrainian workforce working on landmine removal is largely female, including “women whose husbands are serving on the frontline” and “war widows.” The work these women do “is essential for enabling the restoration of Ukraine as the bread basket of the world and all the other kinds of enabling activities that are required to bring Ukraine back economically into the role it plays as an indispensable provider in the international system.”
Tirre said that “174,000 square kilometers, nearly one third of Ukraine's territory may be contaminated with landmines and other explosive remnants of war.” “These explosive hazards are in people's homes, gardens, parks, power stations, grocery stores, roads, hospitals, schools, and farms,” he added.
Tirre observed that the use of improvised explosive devices by Russian forces “is reminiscent of ISIS tactics in Iraq and Syria, where ISIS terrorists sought to inflict as many civilian civilian casualties as possible and make people afraid to return home and follows Putin's broader strategy of trying to break the will of the Ukrainian people by causing as much suffering as possible.”
ON THE STATE DEPARTMENT’S EFFORTS
Tirre’s department is responsible “for overseeing [our] humanitarian demining assistance to Ukraine.” The State Department recently announced $89 million in funds to support demining operations, building on projects that have been in place since 2014, the year Russia annexed Crimea.
Tirre has worked with partners like the HALO Trust “to translate this funding into tangible activities that protect civilians, restore infrastructure, and set the stage for Ukraine's recovery.”
Demining assistance “is a critical way to ensure that we counter this nefarious strategy and that Russia's invasion results in a strategic failure” as well as a sound “taxpayer investment,” said Tirre, who said doing so “stabilizes the country immediately while also facilitating longer term reconstruction and development efforts.”
The State Department has partnered with the consulting and engineering firm Tetra Tech to help train the government of Ukraine in its demining efforts. The partnership “is designed to help fill gaps that exist, bring training to the next level, share international best practices and supply much needed equipment.” It expects to deploy 100 demining teams “in the coming year.”
These teams are “an integrated approach that augments Ukraine's own capacity and acts as a force,” said Tirre. They’ve “reported clearing more than 11,000 hectares and 49,000 explosive hazards since the full scale invasion.”
The State Department has also “provided explosive ordinance risk education to more than 18 million Ukrainian civilians” via social media campaigns to teach them how to “recognize and avoid these hazards.”
These teams have received assistance from more than 30 major donors spanning several continents “plus robust participation from the private sector.”
