Ukrainians learn how to clear landmines in Cambodia
SIEM REAP, Cambodia — A group of 15 Ukrainian deminers just finished a week of training in Cambodia, where experts who have cleared minefields from one of the world’s most contaminated countries shared their expertise with the relative newcomers to the dangerous job.
Cambodia is still strewn with mines from three decades of war and internal conflicts that ended in 1998, while the problem in Ukraine is a new one since Russia invaded last year.
Heng Sinith, Associated Press
A Ukrainian deminer, left, holds a mine detector as he listens to a Cambodia Mine Action Center demining expert, right, during a training session Thursday in Preytotoeung village, Battambang province, Cambodia.
Ukrainian deminer Stanislav Kulykiusky said that his team was grateful for the training, saying that at home already 64 deminers had been injured and 13 killed in the line of duty.
“It is a very difficult situation,” he said.
The NGO Landmine Monitor in its 2022 report listed both Cambodia and Ukraine among the nine countries with “massive” mine contamination, meaning they had more than 38.6 square miles of uncleared fields.
Kulykiusky said the main challenge for Ukrainian deminers is the scale of the job but it is critical to ensure all mines are removed before people return to villages and farms.
“This is a precondition of the recovery,” he said.
Heng Sinith, Associated Press
Director General of Cambodia Mine Action Center Heng Ratana, right, shakes hands with Ukrainian deminers Friday during a tour of the Peace Museum Mine Action in Siem Reap province, northwestern Cambodia.
Cambodian deminers are among the world’s most experienced, and several thousand have been sent in the past decade under United Nations auspices to work in Africa and the Middle East.
The team of Ukrainians trained at different sites this past week, learning to use an advanced Japanese mine detector known as the Advanced Landmine Imaging System.
Developed at Tohoku University, the hand-held device consists of a metal detector with an integrated ground-penetrating radar that can help deminers detect and identify buried mines.
Heng Sinith, Associated Press
Ukrainian deminers view old demining machinery Friday during a tour of the Peace Museum Mine Action in Siem Reap province, northwestern Cambodia.
On Friday, the group visited a museum dedicated to explaining the different landmines and unexploded munitions found in Cambodia, then took part in practical training at a site nearby.
On Saturday, the Ukrainians had a day off of training to visit Cambodia’s famous Angkor Wat temple complex before returning home.
The training will continue, however, with regular video conference calls, and a team of three to five Cambodian experts will travel to Poland in April to train more Ukrainians, said Oum Phumro, deputy secretary general of the Cambodian Mine Action Center, the government agency that oversees the clearing of landmines and unexploded ordnance in the country.
Heng Sinith, Associated Press
A dog sniffs COVID-19 scents Friday during a demonstration as Ukrainian deminers tour the Peace Museum Mine Action in Siem Reap province, northwestern Cambodia.
He said Cambodia also was giving Ukraine experienced sniffer dogs and training them on how to use the dogs to detect mines.
“Our deminers have experience clearing mines for about 30 years and we have trained many countries,” he said. “Today we are proud that we are training Ukrainian deminers.”
