Kiev
- The horrors and pain of wars do not end with the cessation of battles and the withdrawal of forces from their arenas, as the effects and repercussions remain for long periods, and in their shadow the danger remains, and for civilians in the first place.
The "deception" of mines and ammunition - if you will - left by the Russian forces in the outskirts of the capital Kyiv is the closest example, as it lurks silently for those who yearn for a quick return to normal life in those areas, turning their hopes - in blinks of an eye - into pain.
In the corridors of a Kyiv hospital, Al Jazeera Net met businessman Serhiy, who was sitting sadly in front of a ward that contained his daughter with his only granddaughter, after the latter was exposed to a "treacherous mine," he says.
He explains his sadness, saying, "I had nothing but a farm on the outskirts of Bocha, which I wanted to be a place for rest and relaxation when I got old.
And he continues, "I hastened to return after the Russians withdrew, and it seems that they lived in the farmhouse, then they mined its land, before we all reached just to be reassured, so my granddaughter Nastia's joy and uncontrolled movement activity turned into a wound that will last for life, disfiguring her limbs, and cutting off her toes."
One of the victims of a mine explosion in the Lugansk region in the Far East of Ukraine (French)
Long years to mine
About two months after the withdrawal of Russian forces from those suburbs, the sounds of explosions of dozens of mines and unexploded ordnance are still heard in Kyiv from time to time.
The Ukrainian Emergency Service confirms that the Russians left thousands of mines behind, in homes and their yards, in the streets, on the battlefields, outposts, and in the surrounding forests;
In addition to thousands of unexploded ordnance, especially "cluster" ones.
In conjunction with continuous efforts to search for and remove these mines and munitions, news of civilians and farmers being injured as a result of them has become a daily issue.
The press spokesman for the Emergency Authority, Andrey Tsaplenko, told Al Jazeera Net, "In the first days after the withdrawal, we were dealing daily with more than a thousand mines and unexploded ordnance. Their total is estimated at thousands in Kyiv alone, and dealing with them takes 5-10 years actually."
Indicating the difficulty of the matter, Tsaplenko notes that "during the first week of last April, we combed only 20% of the city of Irbin, concentrating on homes and roads. Today it is safe, but the danger remains in the surrounding forests."
Team members of the Ukrainian Emergency Service remove mines from a field on the outskirts of Kyiv (French)
Russia mines land and sea
Demining operations are not limited to the outskirts of Kyiv only, but also include several areas from which Russian forces withdrew at the end of last March, such as the Sumy and Chernihiv regions, northeast of Kyiv, in addition to naval mines near the coast of Odessa in the south.
Tsablenko believes that "Russia is heavily mining Ukraine by land and sea, out of killing, hatred and harm, and not for anything else," he said.
He added, "To understand the seriousness of this matter, it is sufficient to know that 8 years after the battles of the Donbass region in 2014 were not enough to remove all the mines left by Russian separatists and militants. This is their approach," as he put it.
"I would never advise the residents to rush back to these areas, and I would not advise those present to move away too much into the depths of the forests or the sea," he added.
On 14% of the area of Ukraine
According to the Association of Explosives Experts, mines and unexploded ordnance are spread over an area of about 14% of the country's total area, which is about 603.7 thousand square kilometers.
In an interview with Al Jazeera Net, a member of the association, Vladislav Tsurenko, said that "some neighborhoods of the northern city of Kyiv, and the entire northern part of the Kyiv region extending to the border with Belarus, have actually turned into minefields."
"We are facing a dangerous area of no less than 82,500 square kilometers of Ukrainian territory, and the retreat of Russian forces from other eastern and southern regions will increase this area," he added.
"We are talking here about anti-tank and anti-personnel mines, and unexploded ordnance remnants, and the process of removing them with this amount and spread requires many years, serious international support and popular participation, as we organize courses for volunteers who want to participate in search operations, and learn how to deal with mines," Tsurenko said. .