Clearing Mines, Saving Lives in Ukraine

In a small bedroom community of Ukraine’s capitol city of Kyiv, a young girl is extremely lucky to be alive. In her home’s backyard, there was a shiny object that looked a little like a torpedo. She and her little friends liked to play around it. 

The object was a cluster bomb cannister. When it was dropped over Bucha, normally it would have opened up like a clamshell low above the ground, and and once opened, it would have dispersed roughly 200 grenade-size smaller bombs. These would scatter on the ground covering hundreds of square yards.

The smaller bombs were designed to explode on impact, but as many as 20 percent of the bomblets fail to detonate at first but can explode at any moment if touched or disturbed, each of the smaller bombs inside had enough force to blow out windows of cars or buildings. In the case of this cluster bomb, it had simply failed to open and landed in the little girl’s back yard.

The problem for the young girl is the cannister containing these bomblets was both easily disturbed and deadly. 

Fortunately, professionals from the HALO Trust, the world’s largest mine-clearing organization, were called to the scene to support local first responders. The team is led by a young woman from Ukraine’s Donbas region, herself a refugee, who commands a team of professionals who expertly survey and assess the danger and set a plan to clear.

NBC News/YouTube

She and her team came, wearing their full protective gear, including a helmet with a blast resistant glass visor, armored trousers, leggings, and blast-resistant boots. The gear is designed to protect the de-miners from bomb fragments traveling at 1500 feet per second.

 In addition to their protective gear, they had something more important: a deep knowledge of explosives, including the deadly cluster munitions littered across Ukraine.

 By the way, it’s not surprising that the team leader was female. As Chris Whatley, Executive Director of the USA office of  HALO explains, “In conflict areas, we make it a point to hire women. Often they’re widows or internally displaced, or they have a husband fighting at the front.”

 HALO understands that women in a conflict area may be desperate for work and the income that goes with it. “Across our workforce,” says an obviously pleased Whatley, “98 percent of our staff come from the communities we serve. It’s not just deminers, but also drivers, translators, medics or other professional work such as finance, HR and administration.”

 Today, the little girl in Bucha is alive and well. However, others in Ukraine haven’t been so fortunate.   Since February 24, 2022, HALO has recorded 200 accidents caused by landmines or other unexploded ordnance. More than 370 civilians have been killed or blinded, or lost a limb, or otherwise been badly injured. 

 Sadly, the true number of accidents is likely to be far higher. During the chaos of war, under-reporting is almost guaranteed. The Russian invaders are continuing planting mines in Ukraine or leaving behind unexploded ordinance.  

Leaders and voters need to do everything they can to get the Russians out of Ukraine. The longer they stay in Ukraine, the more they’ll continue mining the country, and the more innocent people will be killed or maimed.

 For more information, come to https://donorsee.com/MineFreeUkraine.