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On his knees in the fighting trench, one Ukrainian soldier was carefully looking for the tripwire almost invisible attached to the explosive device – without the trigger.
There is no easy task, it becomes more challenging in the mucky crevices filled with ammo, food containers and garbage.
They are also being monitored.
But he was not in danger.
It was a training exercise, drawing soldiers from the front lines of Ukraine to the comparative safety of Poland, where Canadian combat engineers acted as instructors, teaching them how to detect and defuse landmines, booby traps and other improvised explosive devices (IEDs).
“Ukraine asked us to teach their soldiers how to clean things like this,” explained Lieutenant Jacques Pecora of the Canadian Armed Forces. “They take casualties when they are taking land. When the Russian soldiers retreat, they often use booby trap trenches.”
The training happened quickly. It should be. Ukraine needs its soldiers to return to battle with the new skills provided here.
They are “critical to survival on the battlefield,” according to Canada’s Chief of Defense Staff.
General Wayne Eyre would not talk about the tactics being transferred, to make sure the Russians didn’t find out, but said “Canada can be very proud of what it has given the Ukrainians in terms of skills and knowledge.”
Anything can be a trap
While Ukraine does not release casualty figures, it is clear that soldiers have been killed by IEDs placed on laptops, phones, ammunition boxes – even the bodies of Russian soldiers as they leave their positions and Ukrainians move.
Ukrainians were shown how to use ropes to open doors, move bodies, move anything that could hide an IED. If the device explodes, aim for all soldiers to be at a safe distance at that time.
Beyond this, 30 percent of Ukraine’s territory is now contaminated with landmines, planted by forces from both sides.
That has been very destructive to military vehicles, often killing the people inside, but also leaving a long-term legacy.
“We have to do a lot of demining, it will be difficult, some estimates may take five years, so that people can use their homes,” said Ukrainian soldier Pte. Sologub. Military authorities will not release their full names for security reasons.
But all Ukrainian soldiers on this road are battle-tested, their minds match the danger ahead.
“Many people when they first came here took cover when planes flew overhead. Because in Ukraine, there are only military planes, and if you see them, they might attack you.”
Four days after the interview, he was back on the front lines, trying out the new skills the Canadians had taught him in Poland.
Demining can take generations
Even if the war in Ukraine ends immediately, the scourge of landmines will remain.
There is not a single map of the places where they are buried by the roadside, in fields and forests.
“The contamination in Ukraine is massive,” said Canadian Jasmine Dann of the demining charity Halo Trust once championed by Princess Diana. “Distinction [compared to other mined nations] despite the complexity.”
Traditional land mines are activated when pressure from a foot or vehicle compresses two metal plates together, completing an electrical circuit and causing a detonation.
As the pressure plate mines spread across Ukraine, so did the seismic devices that exploded based on any movement around them. That makes mine clearance particularly challenging.
There are also magnetic devices, which are triggered by metallic objects passing nearby, whether tanks or metal detectors used by mine clearance specialists.
Until it is cleared, life cannot be normal again.
“Ukraine is one of the largest producers of agricultural products in the world,” Dann said. “I have seen first-hand farmers who cannot access their land, cannot return to their livelihoods, and now cannot support their families.”
The former government bureaucrat is now the Operations Officer for all Halo Trust operations in Ukraine. These efforts are supported, in part, by the Canadian government. At the start of the war in February 2022, the Trust had 200 demining personnel in the country. By the end of the year, it is expected to have 1,200.
Even then, finding and removing all the mines would take at least a generation, and possibly decades.
The cost of finding where mines will be measured in limbs and lives lost, as is the case in Cambodia, Vietnam and Afghanistan which are each struggling with mines more than 50 years after they were laid – the long tail of any war.
Canadian training mission to continue
While soldiers of NATO countries are not directly fighting in Ukraine, the alliance is certainly involved in the war effort.
A recent deployment of Canadian soldiers – combat engineers and medical trainers – began months-long assignments to various facilities in Poland, training successive rotations of Ukrainians in the skills needed today.
And there is direct feedback from former students, so that Canadians understand the new Russian tactics and find solutions on how to defeat them.
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