Peja (Kosovo), reportage
At the foot of the mountains bordering Montenegro and Albania, twenty-four Ukrainian deminers, mainly women, surround a Soviet bomb FAB 500. Rusty, but still lethal, it embodies the immensity of the challenge: with nearly 30 % of its territory polluted by unexploded ordnance, Ukraine is today the most mined country in the world, according to NATO. Although the war is still raging in the east and south of the country, the demining of the territories liberated from Russian forces since 2022 is already essential, to make the land livable and cultivable again. « granary of Europe ».
Far from the battlefields, it is in Kosovo that many Ukrainians come to train. This country of former Yugoslavia remained littered with mines after the 1998-1999 war. Many humanitarian demining organizations have since set up there, transforming Peja, in the west of the country, into a center of expertise in the field.
Historically male domain
These sixteen Ukrainian women have left their jobs – barista, entrepreneur, programmer or ecologist – and share a colossal mission: clean the liberated areas of their country of bombs, grenades and other explosive remnants, to allow families to return and farmers to start again. their crops. After initial training on the ground in Ukraine, they were chosen to follow in-depth training in Kosovo, which will allow them to take on more responsibilities, particularly in leading teams.
Environ 30 % of humanitarian deminers in Ukraine are women.
© Isabelle de Pommereau / Reporterre
In this historically male-dominated field, deminers train at the Mine Action & Training center (MAT), refining know-how vital to the Ukrainian and global economy. The work is titanic: it will take decades to rid Ukraine of its war relics.
Founded in 2010 by a former British soldier, the MAT Kosovo has established itself as a world reference in humanitarian demining. Trainees from 170 countries learn to identify and neutralize explosive devices by following the most rigorous international standards. Since the Russian invasion, two non-profit foundations, Jersey Overseas and Mriya, have financed the training of these 487 Ukrainians, including 87 women, at the rate of 6,000 euros for five weeks. When these graduates return, they immediately return to the war zone.
« A mine does not distinguish between a man and a woman »
On this autumn morning on the training ground, British Royal Air Force veteran Stew Burgess points out a tiny detonator buried in the bomb FAB of 500 kg. « It’s this piece that makes the “bang”. The rest is just mass »he explains.
Nadia Chygrina, Natalia Myronenko and Veronica Mykhailova listen to their trainer's instructions.
© Isabelle de Pommereau / Reporterre
At his side, Anastasiia Minchukova, 23, translates. Rejected for a combat post in February 2022, she is one of eight women to have volunteered for mine clearance training in Peja as soon as it opened to women in April 2022. Until then, mine clearance was part of around a hundred professions considered to be « dangerous for women's reproductive health ». « A mine does not distinguish between a man and a woman. Ukraine cannot deprive itself of half its forces »she says.
Like her, Nika Kokareva, 40, listens attentively. Team leader in her native region of Mykolaiv, in the south of Ukraine, she has cleared a field of sunflowers for six months, sometimes advancing a meter per day. « We still have ten or twenty years of work ahead of us »she confides.
« Demining Ukraine will not take years, nor decades, but forever »
For Kosovar instructor Artur Tigani, the first Ukrainian trainees bring back painful memories. « It was like a mirror of my past »confides this veteran of the Kosovo Liberation Army. After war ravaged his hometown, Peja, humanitarian demining allowed him to rebuild.
The Mine & Action Training center is based in Peja, a town hit hard by the Kosovo War in the late 1990s.
© Isabelle de Pommereau / Reporterre
Since then, he has trained deminers in conflict zones, from Mozambique to Syria. But Ukraine represents an unprecedented scale: millions of unexploded ordnance — often obsolete Soviet munitions — pollute fields, streets and playgrounds. « Demining Ukraine will not take years, nor decades, but forever »he predicts. Faced with the immensity of the task, its mission is clear: « Provide elite training. »
« The men are at the front, the women are standing out »
For many, mine clearance is more than a job, it is a path to resilience. Giulnara Makarets, 50, found purpose after fleeing Russian occupation in Donetsk in 2014 and Mariupol in 2022. Veronica Mykhailova, 20, left her job as a barista to clear the fields of Kharkiv, despite the pleas of her mother. « The men are at the front, the women are standing out »she sums up pragmatically.
A 35-year-old ecologist, Oksana Omelchuk sees demining as a way to reconnect with her vocation. When the bombings interrupted her work in national parks, she turned to a new mission: « How can you convince people to preserve nature when they have lost everything? ? » In Peja, she is perfecting techniques aimed at limiting the impacts of explosions on ecosystems, combining protection of biodiversity and reconstruction.
Long banned from this profession in Ukraine, women now represent 30% of mine clearance personnel.
© Isabelle de Pommereau / Reporterre
The sector is changing rapidly, as Iryna Kustovska, operations manager of the Ukrainian Minesweepers Association, observes. A former drone specialist in the civil aviation administration, she retrained after the Russian invasion. At Peja, she rose through the ranks to become the first woman to graduate from the most advanced course in the MATreserved for international experts and military personnel. Today, a quality control engineer for Demining Solutions — one of the first private mine clearance companies in Ukraine — she embodies a revolution in a sector where women now occupy a third of the 4,000 positions.
A job for generations
In his country, mines kill people every day. On the door of their classroom, a poignant tribute bears witness to this: “ Dmytro (Dima) Yershov, 30.01.1992 – 03.12.2023. » This former surfer and graduate of MAT died following an accident caused by an anti-tank mine near Izioum, two weeks before the birth of her first child. Like him, nearly 1,000 Ukrainians have lost their lives since the start of the war because of mines.
Anastasiia Minchukova, 23, is an interpreter at MAT. She poses in front of the plaque in tribute to a former graduate of the center, killed by a mine in December 2023.
© Isabelle de Pommereau / Reporterre
After an intense week of training, Nika Kokareva collapsed from exhaustion. « This course is a unique opportunity. I have no right to failshe confides. I have to finish clearing the fields near my house. It's vital. Then I will head east. »
Before the war, she led a very different life, working in luxury hotels and scuba diving in Egypt and Cambodia. As she approached her 40th birthday, she decided to return to Mykolaiv, to be closer to her mother and brother, dreaming of a more stable existence. But the war swept away his plans.
Nika Kokareva, 40, a team leader in her native Mykolaiv region, and instructor Stew Burgess in front of unexploded ordnance.
© Isabelle de Pommereau / Reporterre
She briefly fled to Poland, but quickly returned, determined: « I didn't want to be a refugee ». On her return, she is confronted with scenes of horror: destroyed villages, hungry stray dogs, terrified residents locked in their homes or surviving in deserted hamlets. The human and animal losses caused by mines have a deep impact, particularly when residents are killed while collecting wood or domestic animals explode on machines. But let yourself be overwhelmed by grief « consumes too much energy »she concludes. She chooses action and trains in mine clearance. « I like risk and adventure. I wanted to be on the ground. »
« Farmers can't wait any longer »
Back in Ukraine, Nika Kokareva knows that her mission will go beyond the current war. « The work we do today, our grandchildren and their grandchildren will have to continue. »
The urgency is palpable: in Mykolaiv, the imminent arrival of snow will make an already grueling task almost impossible. « We must clear the fields before it is too late. Farmers can't wait any longer »she insists. Some are already taking insane risks by working in areas that are still contaminated, putting their lives at risk to sow or harvest.
One memory remains engraved in Nika's memory: her first demolition in Peja. « Destroying these death machines feels amazing »she confides. For Nika, each controlled explosion, each device neutralized, represents much more than a simple technical success: it is a step towards freedom and the reconstruction of her country.
