Russia's Danger!! Mines!! threat to Diana's landmine legacy

PRINCESS Diana's legacy on landmines is at risk as hundreds of children die or are maimed each year amid escalating wars worldwide, a charity warns.

- Hanna Geissler

The royal catapulted the issue into the spotlight when she was pictured walking through minefield in Angola in 1997.

Just three months after Diana's death in August 1997, the Ottawa Mine Ban Treaty - which she had championed was signed by 122 countries and became one of the most successful disarmament agreements in history.

But now wars raging across Ukraine, the Middle East and parts of Africa mean global progress towards eradicating the use of anti-personnel mines is at risk.

The Daily Express travelled to Kharkiv in eastern Ukraine with demining charity The Halo Trust to witness the life-saving impact of work to find and dispose of still deadly remnants of war.

Halo's chief, Major General James Cowan, said it had seen great success in countries such as Mozambique which have been declared mine-free, but that widespread unrest means progress has stalled elsewhere.

"Zimbabwe, Sri Lanka, Cambodia, Angola will become mine-free in due course. That would be a tremendous picture were it not for current conflict."

Stressful

The retired miliary man said wars in recent decades had largely been contained within states, between governments and insurgents who did not have access to industrial production methods and instead utilised improvised explosive devices.

He said: "Many of the wars we were dealing with four or five years ago were about IEDS - in Afghanistan, Syria and Iraq.

"The Ukraine war is bucking the trend and has brought industrial warfare back. And it's not a small war, it's absolutely huge."

As the daily bombardment continued in Kharkiv, we visited a school a couple of hours away where children were being taught to identify threats.