Square by square: emergency workers showed how mine-detecting dogs clear mines in Mykolaiv Oblast

Mine-detecting Belgian sheepdogs Alf and Quad are demining the Mykolaiv Oblast / Photo:  SESU

Mine detection dogs continue to work on demining agricultural land in Mykolaiv Oblast. Two Belgian shepherds — Alf and Quad.

Every day, they go square by square in the field and examine it for the presence of ammunition, the State Emergency Service in the Mykolaiv region reported.

It is noted that the Mykolaiv region is the second region that four-legged sapper assistants help to clear.

«According to the algorithm, the dogs sniff the path within the defined perimeter, return along the same route they took, and move on. And so, until the entire square is passed. If the dog hears the smell of an explosive substance, it stops at a certain distance, and then the pyrotechnics, which already work according to their instructions, come into action,» the State Emergency Service reports.

According to dog experts, this type of demining is passive, but effective, because one of the key features of mine-detecting dogs is their sense of smell and the ability to detect explosives, even those hidden under a thick layer of earth.

Mine-detecting Belgian sheepdogs Alf and Quad are demining the Mykolaiv Oblast / Photo: SESU

Mine-detecting Belgian sheepdogs Alf and Quad are demining the Mykolaiv Oblast / Photo: SESU

Mine-detecting Belgian sheepdogs Alf and Quad are demining the Mykolaiv Oblast / Photo: SESU

How is the demining of the Mykolaiv Oblast going on?

Ukraine recently updated the country's priority demining plan. According to it, more than 512,000 hectares of agricultural land are subject to priority demining, of which 44,000 hectares are in Mykolaiv Oblast.

As of December 2023, 30% of the territory of the Mykolaiv region has been mined. In total, it is 754 thousand hectares of land.

At the same time, they are working on demining in the region. For example, as of October 2023, 13 thousand 40 hectares, including 9 thousand 25 hectares of agricultural land, have been demined in the Mykolayiv region.

Dmytro Komarov, the author of the «World Inside Out.Ukraine» project, visited the mined territories of the Mykolaiv region and showed the work of local sappers. NikVesti also told about a farmer from Kyselivka, who is trying to demine his fields on his own.

About 30,000-35,000 hectares of land remain mined in the Bashtan district of the Mykolaiv region, part of which was under occupation. And in the village of Maksymivka of Pervomaisk community of Mykolaiv region , locals live with an unexploded shell under the foundation of the house.

In general, the demining situation in Maksymivka is currently critical. A year after liberation from the Russian occupiers, the village was demined by only 40%.

Read also the article NikVesti «Decades are needed: How the demining process of the Mykolaiv region continues».

It is known that the company «Demining of Ukraine» has developed a plant capable of demining the Mykolaiv region for three months.

Also, units of the Corps of deminers are already working in the Mykolaiv, Kherson and Kharkiv regions.