RACE AGAINST TIME – WOMEN DE-MINERS IN UKRAINE
Unexploded ordnance residues often look harmless, but they can be fatal. Young women deminers in Ukraine put their lives at risk to clear important infrastructure points of landmines.
Despite constant shelling, young Ukrainian women like Olena Tschisch continue to work as humanitarian deminers. Putting their lives at risk, they carry out the painstaking and dangerous task of clearing roads and important infrastructure of explosive remnants of war and landmines. Tetiana Welschina’s job is to find the exact location of contaminated areas. Tetiana and her team drive through potentially mined territories, searching for signs and interviewing witnesses. She needs to know where Russian units have passed through, where heavy shelling has taken place, or where mine accidents have already occurred. The fate of 23-year-old Oksana Balandina shows just how vital her work is. The nurse from Lysychansk lost both legs in a mine explosion. Despite the difficulties she now faces in her everyday life, Oksana has lost none of her vitality. Every day, she practices walking with prosthetic legs. Her goal is to inspire people who have suffered a similar fate. Total civilian casualties from ordnance or landmine explosions since Russia launched its war of aggression on Ukraine is currently difficult to determine.