With Spring’s Arrival Ukrainian Farmers Face Deadly Danger from Mines the UN Says

 “Ukrainian farmers face an elevated risk of death and injury as they begin their agricultural work during the spring season due to fields potentially being contaminated with mines and explosive remnants of war (ERW)," said Danielle Bell who heads HRMMU.

Since the onset of the full-scale armed attack in February 2022, HRMMU has documented 1,158 civilian casualties—360 killed and 798 injured—due to mines and ERW in Ukraine. The spring of 2023 saw a spike in such casualties, particularly affecting farmers engaged in cultivating their land.

HRMMU has warned that recent incidents herald a potential increase in mine-related incidents this year, mirroring last year's pattern. In recent weeks in the Kherson and Kharkiv regions—territories occupied by the Russian Federation in 2022 and reclaimed by Ukrainian armed forces in the fall of 2023—mines or ERW have killed three agricultural workers and injured four.

On 29 March, a 50-year-old man, a single parent who had lost his wife last year, was killed when his tractor triggered what appeared to be an anti-tank mine buried in a field in a village in the northern Kherson region. A resident who arrived at the scene shortly thereafter reported to HRMMU that the explosion dismembered the man and ignited the tractor. De-miners found another anti-tank mine in the vicinity following the incident. This tragedy left the man's 15-year-old son orphaned.

Today marks the International Day for Mine Awareness and Assistance in Mine Action, under the theme ‘Protecting Lives, Building Peace.” The high number of civilian casualties from mines and ERW in Ukraine in March highlights the increasingly dire threat ERW and mines pose to Ukraine’s civilian population, including farmers.

HRMMU said every effort must be made to meticulously map and mark the locations of mines and ERW, and to prioritize the demining of contaminated areas as swiftly as possible.