![]() government funding in May for its work in the country. The war's deadly remnants will "continue to be a hidden threat for many years to come," said Mairi Cunningham, who leads clearance efforts in Ukraine for The Halo Trust, a demining NGO that got $4 million in U.S. The ongoing fighting will only expand the area. Ukraine's State Emergency Service said last week that 300,000 square kilometres (115,000 square miles) - the size of Arizona or Italy - need to be cleared. 24 invasion multiplied the scale and complexity of the dangers both there and elsewhere. The east of the country, fought over with Russia-backed separatists since 2014, was already contaminated by mines even before the Feb. Ukraine is now one of the most mined countries in Europe. ![]() "I'm afraid something like this can happen again," he said. Mushroom-picking in the woods has also lost its appeal to him. Schvydchenko said he'll steer clear of dirt tracks for the foreseeable future, although they're sometimes the only route to fields and rural settlements. Often, blast victims are farmers and other rural workers with little choice but to use mined roads and plow mined fields, in a country relied on for grain and other crops that feed the world. They are killing civilians, disrupting planting, complicating the rebuilding of homes and villages, and will continue taking lives and limbs long after the fighting stops. Russia's war in Ukraine is spreading a deadly litter of mines, bombs and other explosives. The truck, and his livelihood, went up in flames.Īstoundingly, the 40-year-old escaped with just minor leg and head wounds. The explosion blew Vadym Schvydchenko and his daughter's toy clean out of the cabin. Then the right rear wheel hit a Soviet-era TM-62 anti-tank mine. The truck driver had the radio on, his daughter's stuffed toy keeping him company, and was bouncing his lumbering vehicle down one of the innumerable dirt tracks in Ukraine that are vital thoroughfares in the country's vast agricultural heartlands.
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