Thats right bullets. Or a mine did this to me. Lissie chomsky is a town in Eastern Ukraine yelena change came here 2 years ago the 29 year old is a lawyer by training. It is 8 in the morning and as usual shes getting ready to go to work. Or think. The most oh i put my hair into a ponytail so i can work with the visor otherwise my hair gets in my face when i put it on. The so what did. I want to do in the Civil Service before going on Maternity Leave and then the conflict started and i had to flee my home i was in the water there. Yelena works hand together with 22 other ukrainian colleagues they have also been living together here under one roof for almost 2 years our employer is an International MineClearing Organization gold but Danish Demining Group. Lucy chance was briefly in the hands of pro russian separatists at the beginning of the war in 2014 today the town is back in the control of the ukrainian government. 13000 people have died so far in the conflict and many flat. Yelena fled from a town that is now part of separatist controlled territory. That little was im from hell for my sake i decided to come here because of the conflict my town was under heavy bombardment and it was too dangerous to stay there. And it was a big shock for all of us none of us ever thought that Something Like this would ever happen to us. But they say that those. On their way to work the mine clearance have to pass through one of the many checkpoints it is closed to separatist territory therefore access is subject to strict surveillance. They start driving through fields the socalled contact line for the front and as the people here call it is just 15 kilometers away suddenly they stop back. Our team leader poverty checks 1st to make sure everythings ok. But. Thats one of the safety routines every day very monotone whether anything has changed the area against the all clear and the team meeting can start here at line one talks to line 3 to 4 is where sergey is working. Hes got a few metres to go and this is where we will start working please make sure you would hear to the safety rules and keep the prescribed distance apart author and thats very important abortion was over. The area where the mine claras are working was once farming land but in 26 team 3 soldiers were killed there after they drove over an antitank mine and it hasnt been used since that red mark show where you are not allowed to travel for safety regulations are very strict the team members communicate using hand signals radios and whistles. Yelena is starting whats known as the humanitarian mine clearance she is combing through every centimeter of ground to completely rule out any danger. With a piece of wire jelena is searching for a trip wires that could trigger an explosion. Now the crafts can be clipped so metal detectors can be used to search for mines and unexploded ordnance. The detector can locate antipersonnel and antitank mines as well as any other unexploded combat devices made of metal. Detectors sounds on alert its imperative now to be as cautious as possible. Yelena is marking the spot the triangle shows where it is safe to stop digging. Most land mines are concealed with their detonators pointing upwards so you only ever try to start digging for them from the site. Team leader pavels signals its time to take a break. Theres a 10 minute break every 15 minutes to ensure that everyone stays focused. Good morning. Sometimes you can advance 20 meters in that time sometimes just 2 thats not up to us it depends on what we come across. Yelena and her colleagues have been working for almost 2 years on these fields an area thats about the size of 130 soccer pitchers. The equivalent of 1000000. 00 soccer pitches are believed to be contaminated in ukraine and that doesnt include the separatist held areas. Yet ukraines economy is heavily dependent on agriculture many farmers just ignore the danger and work their land nonetheless. It remains very difficult to pinpoint where mine sent to unexploded ordinance could be located here near lissie chance the danish the mining group is trying to find that out the dots show where people have already been injured by mines the greatest concentration of mines lies along the red line of contact. We set off a star needs seattle hans go. Yell on his colleague tachyon have velshi not answer a checkpoint that leads into the pro russian separatist controlled area to raise awareness about the danger of mines and unexploded ordinance. It isnt my educated in that it is new is it of course these events have turned my life upside down and yet of what i love body for the conflict i was employed in a bank as a project manager below. I was also responsible for personnel. No i had an interesting job that is a fear but then my town was occupied and i had to leave say you know you swallow. But this is the checkpoint where people cross into territory controlled by the pro russian troops. And her colleagues come here 3 times a week. There are many places where it is possible to enter or leave separatist town territory thousands of people cross this checkpoint daily to visit their families or to pick up their ukrainian state pensions. The border number this checkpoint is just for pedestrians cars arent allowed here people can only cross on foot they think i. Many come from far and wide and often have to wait in line for hours before they can cross this is where the territory controlled by the ukrainian state and and the selfproclaimed peoples republic of the begins the Ukrainian Defense ministry believes that contamination by land mines and other remanent from fighting is even higher in separatist held territory the blown up bridge marks the towns contact line the minefield start right by the side of the road according to the Danish Demining Group 145 people have been killed and injured here since the start of the conflict. Back in listen chance its the end of the working day. When you went this is my little son he likes collecting raves and he really looks forward to autumn when he says mama look how beautiful they are and hes visited me a few times he always points to me and says my mother works there thats her in blue but of course he doesnt understand what i do for a living. I tell him im doing it so that you can run around again without us having to worry about you it would never go the way you know with us that russian as i was. Just as those numbers that the number of times that i overnight here depends on my work of course i want to spend as much time as i can with my son but on some days its just not possible thats why my mom looks after hannah and by the missing mom im in the woods. d d in our free time the mind clear is trying to distract themselves from the harsh realities of the conflict that has affected the mold. In our apartment block was hit and badly damaged it was a 10 Story Building with lots of apartments and shells hit the top floor and the building next door the top 7 floors of the block just folded in on themselves ok watching movies and i like playing piano but i cant at the moment i had to abandon my piano at almost. 7 am an ecstatic. Lover recorded we have breakfast together but everyone comes to the table when it suits them i dont. Mind claras come from different regions and have very different professional backgrounds. Alexei erase co is 32 and used to work as a psychologist now he works as the project coordinator here. He retrained as a specialist in the identification and defusing of explosive devices when a mine clearance finds something its alexei who decides how they should proceed. What will. Stop me as a flurry of activity you know when you see if theres anything inside. Its an open wooden crate. Ok whats your position of. Line to. Roger. Can you see me. Alexei goes to take a look for himself on all this is what we found. Theres the back with the tools over. Moving the failures door. The more weve just decided that well have to remove the crate 1st from a considerable distance of animals and. Then we need a rope in the caribbean or cliff to do that going to be you know we will all move 50 meters away and then it could be a booby trap of the most. Yes the commotion the hood you create might be concealing a grenade or a landmine or Something Like that if anybody sure. Whos coming with me or with me. Alexei needs as many details as possible. To the metal detector b. By the crate remember that youll follow almost all that yes but i didnt go any. Further just up to the line. Lets take off our advisors. More tours are needed for the next step. Just 7 kilometers away children are attending school. Like. Its 10 am morning break time for during the night and the other children. In School Number 23 the dangers of mines and unexploded bombs is also a topic. Children are particularly at risk when they are playing outside in the field songbirds thats why tatiana is hansa give a talk. I just showed us the door good morning children. Because it really is tell me what you can see on the picture here. Finds munition grenades and what are they. Right bullets. In what you quoted so tell me what do you think happened here plus. It was possible their mama told them that they werent allowed to go there because they were landmines. But he didnt listen and he stepped on a mine i cant tell for but. He just wanted to look him play the big guy a bit. But he didnt watch where he was stepping on a mine exploded. And he lost a leg and eye and an arm or even. Embarrassed or even if he had. Most of what ohare tatiana often uses store is to get across the danger of mayans to the younger children. Let me tell you a little bit of boredom we do most of the sessions with the children before the long holidays but it is so they know how to behave when theyre playing outdoors without their parents it means somebody when you but i wouldnt say i did it. In Eastern Ukraine about 200000 children have to walk through land contaminated with land mines and explosives on their way to school. Im not scared but i wouldnt like to see a sign like that because there could be landmines right next to it and. According to the United Nations unexploded bombs on plan mines where the most common cause of death was severe injury among children in ukraine. A destroyed weapons warehouse 100 kilometers fathers solve of lissie chance. In june 28th enemy fire scattered munition and explosives around the area. A tragedy waiting to happen to elena and her son sasha. He told me he founded when he was Walking Around and he saw it somewhere amongst the plants that he picked it up and took it home with him. Just not in the most. Liberal of way the only times my son was sitting there his tablet was plugged in the t. V. And the lights were on and he said he was just looking at the thing when it exploded from one minute to the next you know everything looked as if it had gone through the shredder. He said himself that he had no idea what had happened when we pulled you for him. It was the place i was standing outside and had to crawl in through the window to get to him he was lying against the inside of the door and i even had to fetch our documents otherwise he wouldnt have been treated even in a case like this. There was broken glass everywhere hospital came. To him one of his hands was blown off and the splinters went through his eye and one in his forehead. As they couldnt save his eye was the best of it yet that pollutant who had a woman. Not just all shockers. In the meantime yelena and alexei have got the rope and the kind of been a clip but they need to examine the crate more closely. Everyone else has gathered at a safe distance 50 meters away. They are all waiting down. And id say is now the only 1 may have a crack. At it in all but alex a is going to attach the caribbean or clip board they will then hes going to leave the area and pull the rope. First he has to take cover well call the rope all. Its own. Were all curious to see what happens then. This is the road to speaking everyone has to squat down no one is allowed to stand im going to start pulling. The rope seems to have got tangled up. If something doesnt explode splinters and stones can become fatal projectiles and theyre wearing bulletproof fasts for that reason protective clothing is of no use if a landmine goes off in the immediate vicinity. Theres no explosion or we have to wait another 5 minutes to be on the safe side. Its vital that we always stick to that safety procedure and wait each time one more bit of mobile not the door before has gone or that we can only approach the sign have there has been no explosion up to 5 minutes. Clear relief around. The only thing that ive come across the safety cap detonator from a highly explosive projectile. The yes there are probably needs inside this great. New soldiers appear to use it as a target in that here once and. Experiencers like theirs bring people closer look at the very thing you heard or would care weve become something of a Little Family because we spent most of the day together and more. Than a little. Break brings some relief when i leave the minefield the tension of the last few hours begins to wave operates. Lizzie chance. Anatoly and his wife have been living here since 2015 after fleeing fighting in the rebel held territory ana tolly is making a broom out of out plastic bottles and he wouldnt be able to cope without the help of his daughter oksana. Roxana. Give me the bottles please so i can start to. Order. When the separatists took over our farm and started looting plundering we decided to flee. With. Packed our things and set off again when we. We didnt get very far. Maybe a 100 meters. There. And then it got us there. As anatoly and his wife were fleeing an antitank mine exploded under that calm hes unsure which side of the account took the brunt of the explosion both of them were critically injured his wife is barely able to leave her bed. Im finished oh yeah. Sure what do i have to show for landmines or i got this from a land mine. What we know and i got this from a mine doing their. Or thats whats left of me. I was always very active. And i couldnt sit still. I ran i jumped i sang and i danced this is my daughter she lives with us now. And we cried together but. Since 2014 almost 2000 people in Eastern Ukraine have been severely injured or killed by landmines all bombs. After a tiring day its important for alexei to switch off and take some time out from what. This is going to do for you exercise helps to get me in my feelings under control and it helps you make better decisions and. Keep it in order. For the most part its dangerous work and its important to stay alert and remade levelheaded that out with me if you cant afford to be controlled by your fears that. Look at that then again at the 4 i came here i had no 1st hand experience of a conflict ive never seen a real taker munition and i had no idea about any of that alexei worked in a Community MentalHealth Center at some point the fallout from the conflict started to become palpable in his town to the national thought of one of the wards in the conflict began many refugees from the areas not controlled by ukraine arrived in my town to. Read them or yeah i thought to myself i have to do something was not the words. The next day and its be. In pouring down jelena alexei and the team cant venture around its too dangerous when it rains fines or steam up and they cant see whats in front of them so stand they tend to tasks they dont usually have time for. This mean wheezy this is our Little Museum that i label every minute of every explosive device well up in the emotion of this book and these are the descriptions with information about each particular one of them with you i think thats the one. Where you go do you give her some praise i dont know theres room for improvement just kidding. The little. Falls what does he know. But this is an antitank mine the t. M. 62. 00 its made of metal and plastic and it detonates when pressure is applied from above. And these kind of anti tank mines were found in the area where ya know wow thanks according to the annual land mine monitor report crane is among the top 5 countries in the world in terms of numbers of deaths and injuries linked to land mines and other explosives more than countries like manny and iraq. Most of the team mining team have known each other for 2 years now every 4 weeks they get a few days off many dont come from the region originally so they often spend the evenings together. This. Year there. Is. Its estimated it could take 40 years to fully clear the areas in Eastern Ukraine of mines for 2 years before the people here can move freely without fear or danger. But everyone who was able to the majority left my hometown they went wherever they could that would leave my family scattered in all directions so i stayed close by in the hope that things might get better at some point was a bit of that thats my dream. Cantonments to. Kick off. This much is certain something is coming. To satsang for the kick up the food to sleep guests and the breasts should be nests player my surprises lists to look to see the new season kick off. In 90 minutes on w. Actually richards just shows numbers but fred shows. To some. Cause. The 1st smart way to get clear good. Looks red. Blue. Flame. Place. This is d w news blind from berlin rewriting the bricks at the horsetail. British m. P. s move ahead with a controversial new bill that grants the government power to override parts of his Withdrawal Agreement with the e. U. Despite fears that it could break International Law also coming up. After weeks of silence on the historic wildfires devastate in the u. S. West coast President Donald Trump arrives in california to visit areas ravaged by the blazes locals point to a warming planet