Ukraine

Since 2022, MAG (Mines Advisory Group) has been working in Ukraine to share life-saving safety messages to communities across the country, educating people on the dangers of unexploded ordnance. More recently, they have begun the mammoth task of demining operations, clearing the land piece by piece of anything left over from the war that might harm civilians, animals or property.  

MAG employs over 250 people in Ukraine - not just technical staff but interpreters, drivers and human resource experts - to manage the ever-growing workforce. The deminers who are clearing the country  of landmines, IEDs and unexploded ordnance are all Ukrainian, and over 40% of these are women. Before the war, MAG’s deminers  worked in a variety of fields including accountancy, medicine and business. Now, they work in a different kind of field, using their new skills to make their country’s land safe again. The team works in the Mykolaiv region, part of the 600-mile stretch of land through the east and south of the country deemed the “front-line”. Missile strikes continue here, with kamikaze drones heard overhead daily.  

“Being at work, I see flowers every day, I smell the field and cut grass, the birds are singing.”   

You can almost feel a warm, gentle breeze at this description; it would be easy to imagine that the war is far, far away.     

Open your eyes and the scene is quite different: 45-year old Olesia stands in front of a minefield. Her protective equipment as blue as the summer sky above, safety pickets line up behind her like giant matchsticks.   

While it’s hard to gauge in any context, let alone during an ongoing war, it is estimated that there are over two million landmines currently in the ground in Ukraine. Each one of these poses a risk to life and will need removing and safely destroying before people can return home without fear.  

Olesia shares that she found the work hard at first – hammering the pickets into the parched earth is a strenuous task. “I thought I couldn't cope with this work because I have never done physical labor before.”   

But she adapted to her new reality – as have many Ukrainians. Her new reality is being unable to see her family. She hasn’t seen her mother in over two years, as she was evacuated to Russia when the full-scale invasion started. She lives with the worry and uncertainty every day. “It’s really unclear if we will meet again or not, and I can’t even imagine what has happened with our property in the occupied territories.” 

Seven years ago, none of these women would have been allowed to take up this work. Until the ban was lifted in 2017, demining was on the list of jobs deemed ”too dangerous” for women in Ukraine.  

One of the team members, Sofiia, shared that she was afraid to join the armed forces, but wanted to help her country. 

“I googled "mine clearance” and applied for a job at MAG. I found a position in Mykolaiv which meant returning to my hometown. I underwent training and, a few weeks ago, I passed the assessment.” 

An added bonus, in her eyes, is how the work boosts the local economy, when local suppliers are used for equipment, vehicles, and of course, staff.  

Many of MAG’s female deminers share the same sentiment: thinking about the future was something they used to do. Now, living day to day is the only way to exist.  Olha, who has just passed her assessment as a deminer, won’t even buy Christmas decorations this year as it feels too long-term. With the future for herself and her country so uncertain, she feels scared to promise her children anything at all.  She describes how her demining work feels like an archeological excavation: considered, careful, painstaking. The difference, of course, being that the item she is uncovering isn’t an ancient artefact, but a potentially deadly device. Still, she does her best to stay positive:

“I have mixed emotions: I feel great responsibility not only for myself, but also for the whole group. It is cool to learn something new, but it is still too early to say anything about how we feel during work, as we are still in our training... MAG has a motto “saves lives, builds futures” and that's how I envisage a safe future for myself.”   

Every day, deminers like Petrova inspect land belonging to local farmers. By speaking to them, she sees the difference that will be made once the land is returned safely to them: the ability to sow crops once more and support their families, free from fear.  

Her sister moved to Russia in 2016, in her words “poisoned by propaganda”. Despite trying to talk to her, it was useless. So, one of the reasons she decided to join MAG was so that her sister might understand the risks she takes for her country, and change her mind.  

So many lives and families have been torn apart by this dreadful war that has no end in sight. 

Even when it eventually does, it is expected that the demining work will take decades to complete. And as the war rages on, each air raid siren might mean the teams have to pause to seek safety, further slowing down their progress.