Kids being kids, inquisitively pick up an interesting or unusual object when seeing it on the ground in a forest or field. In a war zone, that instinct can prove fatal.
The Donbas, after a year-and-a-half of conflict, is littered with
unexploded ordnance and landmines. More than 160 people have died after coming
into contact with this deadly detritus of war, according to media reports.
So to raise awareness about the risk of mines in the territories
affected by the crisis, Danish Demining Group, part of the non-profit
organization Danish Refugee Council, has started an educational campaign.
More than 200 people have already completed the training program, according
to its supervisor Edward Crowther.
The program, founded by the United Nation Children’s Fund and the European
Union, was designed to train local teachers, school psychologists and community
volunteers, who then pass the knowledge to residents of an affected area.
One of the people the Danish Demining Group trained was Oleksandra
Andriyashyna, an activist of the non-government organization Chaplains Ministering
to the Army. For over a year she has been travelling from Kyiv to the war zone
and back, spending up to two weeks there each month, helping soldiers and
civilians in Donbas.
Andriyashyna told the Kyiv Post that when she heard about the
possibility to join the mine-risk training program through her organization,
she signed up immediately.
She said she was sure the campaign would help save “dozens of lives.”
“The trainer explained how strong the temptation is to not see these
things. Not to look out. People who live near the front line get used to the
war. Plus, the non-ferrous metals (used in ordnance) are attractive to some
people,” she said. “You can pick it up with your hands, and end up left with no
hands at all.”
She said the danger is even greater for children, as the “terrorists
mask the explosives, making them look like toys, or covering them with tin
cans, “so that children kick an object or pick it up.”
Andriyashyna has already shared her new knowledge with soldiers, bus
drivers and volunteers. She also had a meeting with the mayor of Popasna, a front-line
city in Luhansk Oblast, to arrange training groups for children. Unfortunately,
for security reasons such classes can’t be held at the moment, she said, as
“they are very worried about gathering a full auditorium for the training, (as)
they are afraid of provocations or attacks against a group of kids.”
Crowther, who described the unexploded ordnance problem in Ukraine as
significant, said that his company has not gathered any definitive data on
casualties. Citing information from open source media, he said that since May
2014 at least 162 people have been killed and at least 286 injured by land
mines and unexploded ordnance in Donetsk and Luhansk Oblasts in eastern Ukraine.
These figures, however,
are “most likely underestimated,” he said.
The State Emergency Service of Ukraine says it has already located and
removed at least 40,480 items of ordnance in the government-controlled
territories. But there is no data on how many of these explosive objects are
still uncollected – and the war isn’t over yet.
Anton Shevchenko, a national project officer in Ukraine for the Organization
for Security and Cooperation in Europe, told the Kyiv Post that according to
the previous international experience in clearing mines from areas of armed
conflicts, one year of war results in approximately five years of de-mining
efforts.
And that means at least seven more years of demining for Ukraine, and
inevitably, more deaths and injuries.
Kyiv Post staff writer
Alyona Zhuk can be reached at [email protected]
