Russia’s war in Ukraine has driven Minchukova, 20, and five other women to Kosovo, where they are taking a hands-on course on landmine clearance and other dangers that may lurk throughout the country once the fighting is over. “There is a huge demand for people who know how to demine because the war will end soon,” Minchukova said. “We believe there is so much work to be done.” The 18-day training camp takes place in an area in the western city of Peja, where a Malta-based company offers regular courses for jobseekers, companies working in former war zones, humanitarian organizations and government agencies. Kosovo was the site of a catastrophic armed conflict between Albanian separatists and Serb forces that killed about 13,000 people and left thousands of unexploded ordnance in need of clearance. Praedium Consulting Malta’s range includes bombed and abandoned buildings as well as vegetation areas. Instructor Artur Tigani, who tailored the curriculum to reflect Ukraine’s environment, said he was happy to share the experience of his small Balkan nation with Ukrainian women. Although 23 years have passed, “they are still fresh in our minds, the difficulties we encountered when we started the clearing in Kosovo,” Tigani said. Tigani is a highly trained and experienced minefield officer who served as an engineer in the former Yugoslav Army in the 1980s. He is based in Kosovo, Sri Lanka, Uganda, Congo, Rwanda and Kenya carry out training missions in Syria and Iraq. During a lesson last week, he took his trainees through an improvised minefield before moving into an improvised outdoor classroom with a huge board with various explosive samples and mines. Although it is impossible to estimate how full of mines and unexploded ordnance Ukraine is at the moment, the consequences of other conflicts suggest that the problem will be enormous. “In many parts of the world, explosive remnants of war continue to kill and mutilate thousands of civilians each year during and long after the end of active hostilities. “The majority of the victims are children,” the International Committee of the Red Cross testified at a UN conference in December. “Locating (non-explosive ammunition) in the middle of the wreckage and sorting it from a wide variety of everyday objects, many of which are made of similar material, is a dangerous, cumbersome and often extremely time-consuming task,” the Red Cross said. . The Mine Action Review, a Norwegian body that monitors clean-up efforts worldwide, said 56 countries had been infected with non-explosive munitions since October, with Afghanistan, Cambodia and Iraq carrying the heaviest weights, followed by Angola. Bosnia, Thailand, Turkey and Yemen. Thousands of civilians are believed to have died in Ukraine since the February 24 invasion of Russia. Russian forces have bombed cities and towns across the country, leaving many in ruins. Military analysts say Russian forces appear to have used anti-personnel and anti-vehicle mines, while Ukraine has used anti-tank mines to prevent the Russians from gaining ground. With Ukrainian men between the ages of 18 and 60 being barred from leaving the country and focusing more on defending it, women wanted to help in any way they could despite the dangers of mine clearance. “It’s dangerous all over Ukraine, even if you are in a relatively safe area,” said Minchukova, who is from central Ukraine. Another Ukrainian student, Yuliia Katelik, 38, took her three children to safety in Poland at the start of the war. She returned to Ukraine and then took part in demining training to make sure it was safe for her children when they returned home to the eastern city of Kramatorsk, where a rocket attack on a crowded train station killed more than 50 people this month. Katelik said her only wish was to be reunited with her family and see “the end of this nightmare”. Knowing how to identify pitfalls that could ruin their lives again is a necessary skill, he said. “Deep down, probably as a mother, I understand that there is a problem and it is quite serious, especially for children,” said Katelik. Mincukova, wearing military-style clothing, said she doubted normal life, as everyone knew it before the war, would ever return fully. “What am I missing? “Peace,” he said. “I dream of peace, of sleeping in my bed without worrying about going to bomb shelters all the time. “I miss the people I lost.” The Kosovo Training Center plans to work with more groups of Ukrainian women, both in Peja and in Ukraine. “We also plan to go to Ukraine very soon and start delivering theater lessons there,” Tigani said.
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