A farmer from the Kherson region told how he demines his field: «We cling to the rope for 200-300 meters and pull»

Oleksandr Ivashchenko, a farmer from Biloghirka. Photo: Olena Kozubovska, NikVesti

Oleksandr Ivashchenko returned to the village of Bilohirka in the Kherson region after the de-occupation of the settlement in November 2022. Before the full-scale invasion, the man was engaged in farming, but today he is forced to demine his own field to feed his family.

This is stated in the report of NikVesti «Self-demining: why farmers of the Mykolaiv region and Kherson region have to survey their lands with their own hands.»

The hopelessness pushed Oleksandr to decide on self-mining of over 5 hectares of land outside the village, which the man sowed with sunflowers and wheat before the full-scale war.

«First, we go through on foot where we found something, then we cling to the rope for 200-300 meters and pull, we pulled three meters, if it did not explode, then we take it in our hands and take it to the landing in a pile. We are already driving a stick there, tying a ribbon and waiting for the emergency services,» Oleksandr Ivashchenko said.

Oleksandr Ivashchenko shows the shells he took out of his field. Photo: Olena Kozubovska, NikVesti

The man has already almost completely surveyed his field, and hopes that he will be able to plant it with wheat in the fall.

It should be noted that with the approach of the sowing campaign, farmers of Kherson region and Mykolaiv region increasingly take risks and survey their lands independently, which often ends tragically. During the two years of the full-scale war, according to the Ministry of Internal Affairs, 610 people in Ukraine were injured as a result of detonation on mines, and another 277 were killed. 14 children were among those killed by landmines. Most of the victims were in the Mykolaiv, Kherson and Kharkiv regions.

In addition, according to the forecasts of the Ministry of Economy of Ukraine together with the Kyiv School of Economics, in the next 10 years, the number of victims of detonation with explosive objects in Ukraine may increase to 9 thousand people.

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In order to find out what explosive objects Ukrainians risk encountering as a result of a full-scale war, and how to behave in such a situation, NikVesti explained in the material «What are mines and what to do if you find a suspicious object?».

Mine danger in the Mykolayiv region

We will remind you that since the beginning of 2024, 17 people have been blown up by mines in the Mykolaiv region, 4 of them died. Last year, 2023, 17 people, including one child, died in the Mykolaiv Oblast due to the detonation of ammunition. According to the calculations of the State Emergency Service of Ukraine (SESU), there were a total of 57 cases of detonation of the civilian population by landmines last year.

The largest number of accidents due to detonations of explosive objects in the Mykolayiv region occurred precisely in the territory of the Snihurivka community.

Previously, NikVesti visited the village of Yevhenivka, where they talked with brothers Igor and Oleksandr Virovkin, who were blown up by landmines during the occupation of the village by the Russian military.

Also, on November 24, 2022, a mine detonation case was recorded in the de-occupied Snihurivka community. As a result, there is a dead and injured among the employees of the State Emergency Service. Later, on December 15, 2022, in one of the villages of the community, a man found two anti-personnel mines left behind by the Russian military. The shells were detonated. A 26-year-old man died on the spot.

On April 22, 2022, in the town of Snihurivka, near the former mineral water plant, an anti-personnel mine blew up two residents of the community. Later, on September 20, 2023, a car carrying two men was blown up by a mine. One of them died on the spot, the second man was hospitalized.

On October 11, 2023, a mine exploded in a field near the town of Snihurivka. The driver was injured as a result of the explosion and is in the hospital. Also, on February 1, 2024 , four people were detonated by a mine near the village of Yevhenivka in the Mykolaiv region.

On March 5, 2024, a 38-year-old man blew himself up in the village of Bezimenne of the Snihurivka community of the Bashtanka district. In addition, in the Snihurivka region, the pyrotechnic group of the State Emergency Service demined the area where a cow was blown up by an explosive device.