"Mined South". What danger did the war of the Russian Federation against Ukraine create in the fields and at sea?

What is the situation with mining territories in the south of Ukraine? Does the potential danger prevent the sowing campaign in the region? What does demining process mean? And how long can it be after the end of the war? About this - in the new program of the Radio Liberty project "News of the Azov Region".

The website of the Parliamentary Committee on Agrarian and Land Policy reports that there is a threat of land mining in many regions of Ukraine. The message said that in many key regions there is no physical possibility to start sowing. Due to Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the total area of ​​spring grain crops in Ukrainian fields may decrease by 39%. The agrarian committee emphasized that the loss of areas of winter cereal crops can amount to 28%. The committee claims that the Russian army purposefully destroys agricultural machinery every day, cases of such actions have been recorded in Brovary district of Kyiv region, Melitopol district of Zaporizhzhya region, as well as in a number of districts of Kherson, Kharkiv and Chernihiv regions. A Ukrainian conservation group claims that much of the cultivated land is occupied, some of it directly damaged by military action and contaminated by the products of explosions, making such land unsuitable for growing food crops. The Ukrainian Environmental Protection Group emphasizes that even after the liberation of the occupied territories, the sowing campaign on some of them may not be possible until demining is carried out. According to the organization's calculations, the zone of risky agriculture in Ukraine, within which it is not possible to conduct a sowing campaign or whose land is currently unavailable, reaches 202 thousand 600 square meters. km, which is about 34% of the entire land area of ​​Ukraine. Specialists identified this zone based on a comprehensive cartographic summary of military operations and the location of Russian troops.

"The shelling prevents sowing" The spokesman of the Zaporizhia Regional Military Administration, Ivan Arefiev, in a comment for "News of Azov" said that the sowing campaign in the region is hindered by shelling of the civilian population, which the Russian army continues to carry out. In particular, in the city of Gulyaipole, as a result of the actions of the Russian military, the agricultural machinery of one of the enterprises that was supposed to start spring field work was destroyed. The spokesman noted that the actions of the Russian military threaten the efforts of Zaporozhye farmers to provide the region with grain. Also, Ivan Arefiev reported that the rescuers of the Zaporizhzhya Oblast State Emergency Service continue to clear the territory of the Oblast from the consequences of the Russian aggression of the military army. Only on March 30, 2022, specialists of the special emergency unit of the main department of the State Emergency Service removed 10 units of explosive objects that posed a threat to the local population. According to KSE, Russia has already damaged at least 411 educational institutions, 36 healthcare institutions and 1,600 residential buildings in Ukraine Mykola Yakymenko, deputy head of the Kherson Regional State Administration, said that active hostilities are ongoing in the Kherson region, and a difficult situation has developed due to the actions of the Russian army. Many settlements remain without electricity and communication, so it is quite difficult to collect information about mined areas. According to Yakymenko, it is still too early to say precisely about the territories that are dangerous. The official noted that there is no question of demining yet, as most of the region is under occupation. According to the deputy of the Kherson State Administration, in some communities farmers go to work in the fields where it is more or less safe. However, there is currently no official information about the sowing date. hor Braginets, an agro-entrepreneur from the village of Chaplinka, Kherson Region, told us that his workers have not yet come across mined areas in the fields. Therefore, the field work of farmers in this area continues. We went to the field, we sowed linseed, this is from early crops, today we apply fertilizers for late spring crops - sunflower, corn, soybeans Ihor Brahinets "Actually, the fields were not mined. Parts of some armored vehicles or parts from missiles were simply lying on them. Since people do not know what to do with them, they say: there are mines, but in reality there were no mines. Last time, the occupiers did not allow us to go to the field. And then after some time, literally after Sunday, they allowed to go out into the field. We went to the field, we sowed linseed, it is from early crops, today we apply fertilizers for late spring crops - sunflower, corn, soybeans. We are now applying fertilizers, cultivating - we are completely in the field," the agrarian said. "It is clear that the work is carried out only during daylight hours. We work until 4:00 p.m., then we take all the equipment in the field and go to Chaplinka to the base. After this morning, the boys come to work, get into the equipment and go to the field," he added. How many years will it take to clear land mines? According to the UN, one year of hostilities leads to 10 years of demining. Timur Pistryuga, executive director of the Association of Sappers of Ukraine, believes that after the end of the war, the main part of the territories will be cleared in a few years, but complete demining will take decades. At least 250 billion dollars are needed for demining Ukraine after the war Timur Pistryuga "How will the state system of mine action work. She has already started work, in the east of Ukraine, the process of humanitarian demining has already begun, there have been achievements. The second factor is finance, this is a very expensive service, it depends on how much finance will be allocated based on the area. According to our preliminary estimates, we transfer all this information to state authorities, it is at least 250 billion dollars," he said. According to the expert, if the state system of anti-mine activities and the attraction of finances will work properly, then in a few years it will be possible to clear the main, key part of the projectiles. "But we understand that if it is done at zero, turnkey, it will take tens of years, because there are hard-to-reach places, etc.," he emphasized. The expert calls the Kherson region the most affected: "More than 20,000 square kilometers of potentially dangerous areas have been recorded in our country. Not mined, I want to note, but the total area subject to the process of humanitarian demining. Mykolayiv region - the data is updated there, but up to 1,000 square kilometers." Pistryuga said that since the beginning of the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Association of Sappers of Ukraine has been working on maps that will be used to survey potentially dangerous areas for further demining in the future. He also told how the demining of territories takes place, and emphasized that this process is complex and takes a long time. "The initial stage, according to the international standards of IMAS mine action. It begins with a non-technical survey, then reports are drawn up, based on the reports, a decision is made on further actions - technical survey of territories or exclusion of territories, after that the process of cleaning the territory. It can be demining by hand, it can be clearing the combat area, technical demining," the expert explained. Danger at sea At the same time, from the point of view of mining, the situation is dangerous not only on land, but also in the sea. On March 30, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine stated that Russia, using sea mines from captured military depots in Crimea, is resorting to provocations and discrediting Ukraine in front of its international partners in the Black Sea. The Ukrainian agency emphasizes that, in addition to the capture and destruction of civilian sea vessels, the territory of Ukraine is being bombarded from the sea. "Russia has invented a new method of maritime robbery, which is the use of sea mines as uncontrolled drifting ammunition," the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine said. The ministry specified that exactly such drifting mines were discovered on March 26-28 this year near the coasts of Turkey and Romania. "According to the results of the conducted identification, it was established that these are sea mines, which as of the beginning of 2022 were not registered with the Naval Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. The specified mines were captured by the armed forces of the Russian Federation in 2014 during the military invasion and temporary occupation by Russia of the Ukrainian city of Sevastopol," the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement.

The Ukrainian agency also noted that "Russia's deliberate use of drifting sea mines turns them into a de facto weapon of indiscriminate action, which primarily threatens civilian shipping in the entire water area of ​​not only the Black and Azov Seas, but also the Kerch and Black Sea Straits," Ukrainian diplomats emphasized . Pavlo Lakiychuk, the head of military programs of the Ukrainian Center for Global Studies "Strategy XXI", told "News of Azov" that demining the Baltic Sea after the Second World War lasted almost 50 years. And now it is not known how many mines are in the Black and Azov seas. "The Russians began the blockade of the Black and Azov seas even before the invasion. I suspect that the operation to mine the fairways and transport corridors, which are directed to our ports, was carried out even then. Later, due to stormy weather, these mines were torn from minreps, thus the Russians not only destroyed us, but littered the entire Black and Azov seas," said Lakiychuk. I think that international maritime law will improve with the experience of modern warfare at sea Pavlo Lakiychuk "We do not have many anti-mine ships - in fact, two that the British promised to hand over to the Romanians, the Bulgarians - not many. In fact, you can ask for help from the North Atlantic Alliance. It has a permanent anti-mine unit, a group of ships that carry out anti-mine operations in the Baltic Sea, in the Mediterranean Sea, they visited us several times. We will ask for help from partners, we will cooperate with partners in the region," he says. Pavlo Lakiychuk believes that a big gap in international law is the lack of direct responsibility for sea mining: "But, God forbid, there is responsibility for the destruction of civilian ships. I think international maritime law will be improved with the experience of modern warfare at sea, which represents today's conflict, if we hold them accountable for all the episodes and for what they do in our cities and for what they do on our land, and for what is being done in our sea."