The Ukrainian government on Thursday launched an awareness campaign on the danger of antipersonnel mines, based on a video posted online. A week ago, the Ukrainian executive assessed the area of its territory mined by the Russian invader at “250,000 km2”, an area larger than the United Kingdom.
Through offensives, withdrawals, and occupations, the Russian invader left behind an arsenal of anti-personnel mines, trapping large areas of Ukrainian territory. A practice, condemned by international lawwhich poses a heavy threat to populations, all the more acute as it promises to last several decades.
In response, the Ukrainian government posted a video on social networks on Thursday to raise awareness of the danger among its fellow citizens.
“The Rule of Three ‘Nos'”
We see a walker walking in the forest and notifying a mine. Keeping his composure, he carefully walks away and dials the number dedicated to mine clearance: 101. “Stay away! Don’t touch! Don’t panic! ‘The rule of three ‘No’ is the main message”, summarizes the tweet accompanying the illustration.
250,000 km2 infested by Russian mines
This educational film posted online by the Ukrainian Ministry of Emergency Services directly echoes to the remarks made, last Saturday, by Prime Minister Denys Chmyhal to the South Korean agency Yonhap. He described his country as the “largest minefield in the world”.
“It is currently the largest minefield in the world. Not only does it make it difficult for people to move around, but it also causes major disruption to agriculture, which is one of our main industries,” he said. he indeed declared.
The head of the Ukrainian government even delivered a more precise estimate of the trapped area: 250,000 km2, a mined area exceeding the surface of the Korean peninsula taken as a whole (221,000 km2 according to the Yonhap count), of Romania ( 238,000 km2), and even the United Kingdom (244,000 km2).
“At least 50 years” of mine clearance to be expected
The locals will not get rid of such pollution by these death machines anytime soon. Quoted here by The world, Perrine Benoist, director of the Department of Armed Violence Reduction for Handicap International, already assessed in April to AFP at “at least 50 years” the duration of mine clearance to be expected in Ukraine. “We are still demining in Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam, fifty to sixty years later,” she added.
A finding that refers to this explanation provided by Frédéric Joly, spokesperson for the International Committee of the Red Cross in France, to BFMTV.com a few days ago: “The mining is done in a massive way, the mine clearance, it is mine by mine”.
The same article again relayed the dark agenda unveiled by Denys Marchuk, vice-president of the Ukrainian Agrarian Council: “A day of war leads to a month-long demining effort in certain territories”. The challenge is all the greater since at the outbreak of hostilities, Ukraine had not yet recovered from the mines laid by the separatists in 2014.
26.5 million Russian mines
The 11 months of war that it has gone through since the invasion by Russia on February 24 have therefore aggravated an already alarming situation. And if Ukraine today is so desperately plagued, it is because of Russian cynicism and firepower in this area, judging by Landmine Monitor report published last November and peeled here by The world.
On the one hand, the document assures that the Russians have so far used seven models of anti-personnel mines against the nation it attacked – six fragmentation and one blast. On the other hand, the Landmine Observatory notes that with 26.5 million mines, Russia holds the largest stockpile in the world.
Assistance from the international community
These figures give a particularly dramatic resonance to the appeals regularly launched by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to the face of the international community, in the form of a plea to obtain its assistance in this mine clearance battle which has only just begun.
Its partners are aware of the issues. As early as August, the Americans promised the payment of 89 million dollars to their ally to help it deal with this threat. On December 30, British Defense Minister Ben Wallace pledged to provide 1,000 metal detectors for this purpose and 100 anti-explosion kits.
As plethoric as these deliveries seem, their senders will undoubtedly have to renew them in view of the extent of the ground to be covered and the prolongation of a conflict which does not seem ready to end.
In the meantime, the wave caused by the Russian mines in the Ukrainian population is already devastating. According to the Landmine Monitor report, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights recorded 277 Ukrainian civilian casualties between February 24 and mid-September 2022.
