PEJA, Kosovo (AP) – Learning to identify and dispose of explosives is something Anastasia Minchukova never thought she would have to do as an English teacher in Ukraine. Still, there she wore a face shield armed with a landmine detector and ventured into a field littered with danger warnings.
Russia’s war in Ukraine has taken 20-year-old Minchukova and five other women to Kosovo, where they are attending a practical course to clear mines and other dangers that may remain hidden in their country after the battle.
“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 do.”
The 18-day training camp is being held at a training ground in the western city of Peja, where the Malta-based company regularly offers courses for jobseekers, companies working in former military zones, humanitarian organizations and government agencies.
Kosovo was the site of a devastating 1998-99 armed conflict between ethnic Albanian separatists and Serb forces, which killed some 13,000 people and left thousands of unexploded ordnance in need of clearing. The scope of Praedium Consulting Malta includes bombed and abandoned buildings, as well as large areas of vegetation.
Instructor Arthur Tigani, who tailored the curriculum to reflect Ukraine’s environment, said he was happy to share his small Balkan nation’s experience with Ukrainian women. Although 23 years have passed, “they are still fresh in our memories, the difficulties we encountered when we started the clean-up in Kosovo,” Tigani said.
Tigani is a highly trained and experienced mining officer who served as an engineer in the former Yugoslav army in the 1980s. He has been stationed in his native Kosovo, Sri Lanka, Uganda, Congo, Rwanda and Kenya and has conducted training missions in Syria and Iraq.
During a class last week, he led his students through a makeshift minefield before moving into an impromptu outdoor classroom that included a huge board with various samples of explosives and mines.
Although it is impossible to estimate how much Ukraine is currently littered with mines and unexploded ordnance, the consequences of other conflicts suggest that the problem will be huge.
“In many parts of the world, explosive remnants of war continue to kill and maim thousands of civilians each year during and long after the end of active hostilities. Most of the victims are children, “the International Committee of the Red Cross said at a December UN conference.
“Finding (unexploded ordnance) among the rubble and removing it from a wide range of everyday objects, many of which are made of such material, is a dangerous, difficult and often extremely time-consuming task,” the Red Cross said. .
The Mine Action Review, a Norwegian organization that monitors global clean-up efforts, said that as of October, 56 countries had been infected with unexploded ordnance, with Afghanistan, Cambodia and Iraq carrying the heaviest weights, followed by Angola, Bosnia and Thailand. Turkey and Yemen.
Thousands of civilians are believed to have died in Ukraine since Russia’s invasion on February 24. Russian forces bombed cities across the country, turning many into ruins.
Military analysts say Russian forces appear to have used anti-personnel and anti-transport mines, while Ukraine has used anti-tank mines to try to prevent the Russians from taking up positions.
As Ukrainian men aged 18 to 60 were banned from leaving their country and most committed to defending it, women wanted to help in any way possible, despite the risks of demining.
“It is dangerous all over Ukraine, even if you are in a relatively safe region,” said Minchukova, who is from central Ukraine.
Another Ukrainian student, 38-year-old Yulia Katelik, took her three children to safety in Poland at the start of the war. She returned to Ukraine and then joined 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 railway station killed more than 50 people. month.
Katelik said her only wish was to reunite with her family and see “the end of this nightmare.” Knowing how to spot traps that could shatter their lives again is a necessary skill, she said.
“Acutely, probably as a mother, I understand that there is a problem and it is quite serious, especially for children,” Katelik said.
Minchukova, dressed in military attire, said she doubted that normal life, as everyone knew it before the war, would ever return.
“What do I miss? Peace, “she said.” I dream of peace, to sleep 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 holding courses there, at the theater of war,” Tigani said.
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