Deadly job keeping land free of lethal mines

GRANDFATHER-of-two Vitaliy Yarovyi sweeps a metal detector over the soil, listening for a highpitched beep. When he hears a signal he places down a marker then kneels and painstakingly rakes through the dirt with a brush and magnet, searching for metal fragments.

- Hanna Geissler

Vitaliy, 57, is one of the Halo Trust's courageous "de-miners" who are working across warravaged regions of Ukraine to find and remove deadly landmines and unexploded ordnance.

The charity has rapidly grown from around 400 staff members before Putin's full-scale invasion in February 2022 to more than 1,500 today.

The Express travelled to Kharkiv in east Ukraine, where daily bombardment continues, to witness Halo's efforts to make vast swathes of land once occupied by Russian forces safe again.

Vitaliy used to work as a thermal power plant engineer but his station in Severodonetsk was shelled and destroyed. He has been a de-miner since April.

He says: "My daughter received a [job] offer first but our family decided I should be the one to do it if my health allows.

"I have two granddaughters living in Kharkiv and I want them to run around a free land, not this hazardous area that we have been left with."

Contaminated

The field around Vitaliy is a hive of activity, with a dozen other de-miners working on sections of land.

All wear protective Kevlar vests and visors that must only be removed during short during short breaks signalled by whistle blasts.

About an hour's drive from Kharkiv city the area which we are not naming to protect Halo's staff was under Russian occupation for six months before its liberation in September 2022.

The invaders used nearby treelines for defensive positions and to launch shells towards the city leaving the land contaminated with anti-tank mines, unexploded ordnance, grenades and anti-personnel mines, some of which were rigged whose with tripwires.