{"id":931897,"date":"2026-05-02T01:38:18","date_gmt":"2026-05-02T01:38:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/931897\/"},"modified":"2026-05-02T01:38:18","modified_gmt":"2026-05-02T01:38:18","slug":"man-machine-and-ai-combine-in-battle-to-clear-ukraine-of-mines","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/931897\/","title":{"rendered":"Man, machine and AI combine in battle to clear Ukraine of mines"},"content":{"rendered":"

Myrotske, Ukraine<\/strong>
Reuters<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Near the village of Myrotske in central Ukraine, a dozen mine clearers moved painstakingly forward in rows, sweeping metal detectors before them in time with one another, like reapers scything wheat.<\/strong><\/p>\n

They are working to make the woods and fields safe from mines and unexploded ordnance left behind after Russia occupied the area, some 40 kilometres north-west of Kyiv, early in its invasion four years ago.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Employees of the HALO Trust (Hazardous Area Life-support Organization), a humanitarian non-government organisation which primarily works to clear landmines and other explosive devices, search for unexploded ordnance left behind after Russia occupied the area, amid Russia\u2019s attack on Ukraine, near the village of Myrotske in Kyiv region, Ukraine, on 8th April, 2026. PICTURE: Reuters\/Gleb Garanich<\/p>\n

Huge areas of Ukraine are littered with mines and other discarded ordnance after years of fighting.<\/p>\n

\u201cUnfortunately, Ukraine is the most heavily mined country in the world,\u201d said Olena Shustova, media manager for demining charity HALO Trust. \u201cUkraine will not be demined in less than 10 years.\u201d<\/p>\n

HALO began demining operations here after a Ukrainian serviceman from a unit stationed nearby stepped on an anti-personnel mine while collecting firewood two years ago, showing the dangers left by the war even when the battlefield moves elsewhere.<\/p>\n

\u201cEverywhere where there was occupation, there are minefields and explosive ordnance,\u201d said Shustova. HALO, the world\u2019s largest international mine action organisation, employs 1,350 nationals in Ukraine.<\/p>\n

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According to state-run Demine Ukraine, more than 132,000 square kilometres \u2013 an area roughly the size of Greece or the US state of Mississippi \u2013 remain contaminated by mines. So far, nearly 42,000 square kilometres have been made safe, it said.<\/p>\n

Given the huge scale of the task, HALO Trust has turned to AI to analyse high-resolution drone imagery of contaminated areas and train systems to identify mines and explosive remnants, achieving around 70 per cent accuracy already.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe process may take decades, but advances in technology are helping to accelerate it,\u201d Shustova said.<\/p>\n

\"\"
An employee of the HALO Trust (Hazardous Area Life-support Organization), a humanitarian non-government organisation which primarily works to clear landmines and other explosive devices, uses a metal detector to search for mines and unexploded ordnance left behind after Russia occupied the area, amid Russia\u2019s attack on Ukraine, in Kyiv region, Ukraine on 8th April, 2026. PICTURE: Reuters\/Gleb Garanich<\/p>\n

Unmanned machines speed up demining
<\/strong>At another demining site north of Kyiv, Oleksandr Liatsevych shelters inside a portable steel cage with reinforced windows where he peers into virtual reality glasses and uses a joystick to guide a customised digger a few metres away. The huge machine excavates earth littered with unexploded ordnance and chews it up in a specialised grinder.<\/p>\n

The unmanned excavator is one way in which demining groups are clearing vast areas of contaminated land more quickly and safely, in a conflict where automation, drones and artificial intelligence are revolutionising warfare.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe difference between driving from a cabin and driving a remote joystick is big,\u201d said Liatsevych, a 39-year-old former civil servant and farmer from the southern town of Huliaipole, on the front line between Ukrainian and Russian forces.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs I didn\u2019t play many computer games as a child, it was difficult for me at first.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the woods nearby, deminer Olha Kava wears a protective vest and visor as she crouches to search for a possible anti-personnel mine in the old-fashioned way, by hand.<\/p>\n

The former travel agent and mother-of-three applied to work as a deminer after her friends joined the armed forces following Russia\u2019s full-scale invasion.<\/p>\n

\u201cOf course, there is fear,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2026motivates you to do your job correctly and responsibly.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2013 Additional reporting by GLEB GARANICH<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Myrotske, UkraineReuters Near the village of Myrotske in central Ukraine, a dozen mine clearers moved painstakingly forward in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":931898,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[7654],"tags":[260639,255810,2000,299,260640,332,657,17961],"class_list":["post-931897","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ukraine","tag-demine-ukraine","tag-demining","tag-eu","tag-europe","tag-halo-trust","tag-russia","tag-ukraine","tag-ukraine-conflict"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116502430219223037","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/931897","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=931897"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/931897\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/931898"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=931897"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=931897"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=931897"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}