Minehunters…

It’s sometimes said that no news is good news. That those with nothing to report should be grateful for the absence of adversity in their life. A quiet life, they say, is, after all, a happy life.

While this is certainly true in many contexts, it is not the case for me and my teammates.

We came to Ukraine to help civilians whose country has been plunged into a senseless, bloody war, and whose lives have been transformed for the worse by powers far larger than themselves.

Over the last number of weeks, we have been given the opportunity to do just that. In a very hands-on way we have been helping the people we came to help.

The more we have been able to do for them, the happier and more content we have become.

The work is dangerous, but we understood the risk when we came here. It was, and remains, one we are willing to take.

Emergency services down

THIS week we have been in two villages in the east of the country – both of which have lost almost all their emergency services because of relentless Russian shelling.

Vehicles and other pieces of crucial equipment and apparatus have been destroyed, and this has left emergency services all but out of commission.

So, in order to help those in need, the government asked if we (Legenda) wanted to step in and help provide these vital services for the local communities. We, of course, said yes.

Deep in the east

WE took the government up on their offer, followed their word, and travelled to eastern Ukraine.

I will not say too much about exactly where we have been, but, suffice to say, we are deep in the east.

In the first village we arrived at, we were asked to clear a cemetery which Russian soldiers had fitted with booby traps.

With Easter coming just around the corner, the town mayor wanted the cemetery made safe.

He is lucky he did. We found some bits of active ordinance in there, so it is a good job that we were called in.

Once we got in there we made sure that everything was cleaned, tidied, safely detonated, and made safe.

A fighting position

THIS village is located in what was is called ‘a fighting position’.

It was formerly occupied by the Russian army and used as a base from which they launched an offensive. That was a while ago. It has since been abandoned.

Leaving the graveyard and expanding our search outward, we quickly came across all sorts of nasty mines – still armed, still ready to kill and maim.

Everything we have found so far has been disposed of, and it will only require a small amount of work before the project here is finished. We intend to clean up all remaining dangerous items in the next day or two.

‘The Rocket Village’

WE have also been working in a place which we have nicknamed ‘The Rocket Village’ – for reasons that are depressingly literal.

This village was hit with 220mm Uragan rockets, which can still be seen lodged in the ground.

There are over 20 of those huge missiles stuck in walls, gardens, the side of the road… The local people are terrified of them.

So far, we have marked off the areas near where these missiles lie. We will check each one to assess whether they are safe to move or if they have to be detonated where they have fallen.

In the surveys we have conducted in this area up to this point, we have discovered a mixture of helicopter rockets and Uragan rockets.

In the next week we will be continuing our project to detect and dispose of all these items as quickly and safely as possible.

Calling EOD operators

WE currently have three EOD (Explosive Ordnance Disposal) operators working with us, but we could do with more.

I would like to conclude by appealing to anybody who has EOD experience and is interested in volunteering in Ukraine to get in contact with me.

We want to deploy you so that your skills can be used where they are most needed.

There is no point waiting until
this war is over before we start clearing mines and removing explosives.

It needs to be happening right now.

Otherwise, people will die.