Deadly mines outside Kyiv have been cleared by Princess Diana’s charity

The burnt debris of a mass carrier is lying in a field in the village of Hoholiv. It hit an anti-tank mine as it trampled on the side of a dirt road, breaking a father’s leg and injuring his children.

Nearby, work is underway to prevent more such tragedies – a delicate operation helped by the remarkable generosity of readers of the Mail and Daily Mail on Sunday.

a few miles east of KyivHoholiv was surrounded by Russian invaders earlier this year. Determined to halt their advance, the Ukrainian army laid down a network of deadly mines.

Now that Vladimir Putin has left, at least for the time being, his ambition to take over the Halo Trust charity Kyiv has begun work to find and destroy the devices.

Its teams are equipped with mine detection equipment, purchased with a £250,000 donation from the Mail Force Ukraine Appeal, which has raised a total of £11.9 million.

“My son knows I am doing an important thing and I am doing it for him too – for his safety and the future of our children,” said Arya Bolotova, 35, the charity’s deputy operations manager in Ukraine. Indeed, eight-year-old Hermann proudly tells his classmates about his mother’s work. “He’s proud that I work and he asks me every day if I found mines,” she said.

The work is laborious and tedious. Using Ukrainian maps and avoiding Russian booby traps, teams scan the ground with large metal detectors to locate anti-tank equipment before destroying them. It would take a month to clear an area measuring a little over 300 meters (330 yards) by 300 meters (330 yards) at Hoholiv.

The Halo Trust, whose work in Angola in the 1990s was uncovered by Princess Diana, has been clearing explosives in eastern Ukraine since 2016, but was forced to withdraw when Russia invaded in February. Its work in western Ukraine will take at least a decade and workers are terrified of what they will find when they return to the east.

Hello Trust Mine Clearance Staff pictured in the fields around Hoholiv Village

Colonel Ruslan Bruhulik, who coordinates landmine clearance for Ukraine’s Ministry of Defense, estimates that more than 60,000 square miles will have to be surveyed for mines that are hindering a return to normal life for many people. . “Infrastructure has been affected. “In some areas, power supply workers cannot access electric pylons for fear of landmines.

People cannot go to their fields to collect strawberries. We are very grateful to Mail Force. Your support will promote safety and a return to normalcy for the local residents.

In Makariv, west of Kyiv, an agricultural lorry smolders near a corn field after it collides with explosives dropped by Russian soldiers. “The driver miraculously survived, but it will make it much more difficult to get food off the farm as farmers will worry that there are more anti-tank mines,” said Simon Conway of the Hello Trust. on the rubble.

‘What we’re doing at the moment is opening up the roads, opening up access… The support we’re getting from Daily Mail and The Mail on Sundays means these people get their food to the market Will find And people all over the world will not starve to death.

The Mail Force Ukraine appeal was initiated with a £500,000 donation from the Mail’s parent company, the Daily Mail and the General Trust, at the request of Lord Rothermere and Lady Rothermere, Chairman of the DMGT.