Ukraine’s landmine crisis: a deadly legacy that threatens lives, recovery, and global security
15 February 2025, 10:31 | Updated: 17 February 2025, 13:21
The Ukraine-Russia peace talks proposed this week have generated a wave of geo-political uncertainty at the Munich Security Conference, which I am attending this weekend.
Listen to this article
Loading audio...
Only the reckless would make predictions about the future of the conflict. But whatever the talks amount to or finally deliver, there is one unavoidable truth: the landmines in Ukraine will one day need to be removed.
About 60 miles north of Kyiv is the tiny, nondescript village of Zolotynka. East of the village is woodland that surrounds the main highway between Kyiv and the city of Chernihiv. For eight weeks in 2022, Zolotynka was held by Russian troops.
When the Russians were evicted, they left behind some nasty surprises for the returning villagers: grenades tied to trees on tripwires, as well as anti-vehicle and anti-personnel mines. It was forbidden for locals to walk in the forest because there had been at least six Ukrainian soldiers killed or injured by the mines and grenades.
For generations, the people of Zolotynka used the forest to collect firewood and search for wild mushrooms and nuts. With the presence of mines, they could not access it and had to buy firewood so they could heat their homes in winter.
The eight-week occupation of Zolotynka had lasting effects for local people. It took teams of Ukrainian men and women, trained by the British landmine charity The HALO Trust, months to clear the woods of explosive hazards.
But in the south and east of Ukraine, the impact is at a much more global scale. Russian troops have had three years to build deep defensive lines hundreds of miles long, protected by what some estimate could be two million landmines. Those mines sit on some of the most productive farmland in the world and contribute to the jump in food prices felt globally since February 2022.
The black, fertile soil of Ukraine is too valuable, and the globe too hungry, for two million mines to be left in the ground, threatening life and preventing reconstruction for generations.
In the first few months after the February 2022 invasion, the HALO Ukraine programme grew rapidly from 400 to 1,500 trained deminers. Already they have cleared millions of square metres of land and tens of thousands of mines and explosives. One day an army of men and women will be needed to finish the job.
- Major General James Cowan is the Chief Executive of landmine charity The HALO Trust
LBC Opinion provides a platform for diverse opinions on current affairs and matters of public interest.
The views expressed are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official LBC position.
To contact us email views@lbc.co.uk
