Women step in to clear Ukrainian land of Russian mines

SNIGURIVKA - Deminer Tetiana Shpak crouched down in a once-tranquil poppy-strewn field in southern Ukraine, now littered with Russian mines.

Just a few years ago, this scene would have been impossible – until 2018, women were banned from becoming deminers, a profession long considered too dangerous for them.

“I did not think that my path would lead here,” said the 51-year-old former maths teacher whose face was covered with a thick protective mask.

But the Russian invasion in February 2022 changed that.

After first helping to build fortifications to repel Moscow’s soldiers and then losing her father in a bombardment, Ms Shpak said she “really wanted to be useful”.

More women like her are joining mine-clearance teams, where they now account for 30 per cent of personnel, according to official data.

A similar trend has unfolded in other professions once dominated by men that have been drained of labour by mobilisation and emigration.

“The family was initially against it, of course,” said Ms Shpak, who has been working for the Halo Trust mine-clearing organisation in Snigurivka, in the southern Mykolaiv region, for the past year.

Her teenage daughter, in particular, was “nervous”.

But Ms Shpak told her that the work is safe, as she only locates mines while other teams actually detonate them.

“Now my daughter says that when she grows up, she will also try something similar,” Ms Shpak told AFP.

While she does not see herself as a role model, she said she would “like to see more women doing this kind of work”.

More attentive

Ms Valeria Ponomareva, a 23-year-old former hairdresser who leads a team of deminers, says women can have advantages in this line of work.

“Girls are more attentive, careful,” she told AFP.

She said her mother was “shocked”, but she has no regrets about her “dramatic” career change.

“For the prosperity of Ukraine, our work is necessary,” Ms Ponomareva said.

Ukraine’s ranks of female deminers boast a former ballerina, a chemist who used to produce sparkling wine, and a dentist, the Halo Trust says.

Ms Ponomareva comes from the eastern Donetsk region, one of the most heavily mined areas in the country where war has raged since 2014.

Russian forces laid mines around Snigurivka when it was under their control for much of 2022.

Elsewhere, Ukrainian troops have also left a trail of their own explosives which they hope will thwart Russian advances.

According to the Interior Ministry, almost a quarter of the country could be “contaminated with mines and explosive devices”.

More than 270 people have been killed in mine blasts since Russia invaded in February 2022, according to Kyiv.

Want to serve

The conditions Ukraine’s deminers face are tough.

They need to be methodical, patient and ready to work outside, whatever the weather.

In early June, temperatures were already well above 30 deg C.

Recruitment is not easy, said Mr Oleksandr Ponomarenko, who supervises a clearance team.

“(Some) come, work one or two days and realise it’s not for them. And they leave,” he said.

For now, women make up just under half of his unit but he hopes that this proportion will grow.

Standing not far from an anti-tank mine discovered by his team, he says women who are married to soldiers fighting on the front are likely candidates.

“They also kind of want to serve, but they realise that this job is safer.”

The task they face is immense: a group of seven people can clear just 80 to 100 sq m of land a day.

The field in Snigurivka alone was around 35,000 sq m – meaning at least another year of work, said Mr Ponomarenko, who has a Ukrainian flag pinned to his flak jacket.

Across the entire country, demining is expected to take decades.

And as the conflict grinds on, land that has already been cleared could yet be re-mined.

Curious observers

A few kilometres away, in the village of Vasylivka, a team had recently cleared a plot of land belonging to Mr Mykola Murai, a 60-year-old farmer.

“Everything was covered in mines,” he said, relieved he could once again earn an income from the field.

The sight of female deminers had caught him off guard at first, he admitted.

“I was surprised, of course, at first I thought it was just some curious observers,” he told AFP.

He was soon convinced though, after his field had been combed through and cleared.

“I think they work better than men,” Mr Murai said.

Surprise is a common first reaction to the female deminers, said Ms Iryna Nomerovska, who heads a land surveyance unit.

“The population does not really accept young girls working in demining. They think it’s a bit strange,” she said.

Ms Nomerovska, a trained economist who decided to help demining efforts after living under Russian occupation at the start of the war, said she is “very proud” of her work.

After all, she added: “Who else can do it but us?” AFP