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Women in Ukraine are clearing thousands of unexploded Russian bombs and mines.
Six months on from Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February, and more than a quarter of the country is littered with explosives. According to the US, up to 60 percent of Russian explosives failed to detonate, meaning people in the country are still at risk of being killed or injured by the ordnance.
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Due to most men being unable to leave the country, Ukrainian women are heading off to get the training needed to safely remove the unexploded ordnance. The four-week course certifies them as deminers under the International Mine Action Standards.
One woman, Dasha Starikova, joined the effort after initially fleeing to Slovakia where she was volunteering to help refugees.
She learnt that some of her colleagues were undergoing training in Kosovo where they would return to Ukraine to demine the land.
“I just want to continue my work,” Starikova told VICE World News in a video shared on their YouTube.
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“My husband told me that I can stay in Slovakia for more time, but I decided not to do it because I want to continue my work. If I will lay down on the bed, I will go insane."
She continued: "We are doing something important. We are important."
Ben Remfrey, who is a former British soldier running one of the world's leading training centres, started a charity - along with his colleagues - called Friends of Ukraine EOD, which provides the programme for free.
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“In the short term, we've been advising the operators on the ground inside Ukraine how to deal with some of the munitions that they're coming across, because they've got no idea,” he told VICE.
“We're advising them how to render safe some of these airdropped weapons, or cluster munitions, or destroy in situ. All the while, what we're doing is we're trying to move towards a concept of train and equip.
“As far as I know, it's the first training of its type – to international standards – that's happened for any Ukrainian since the beginning of the Russian invasion."
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Once the women join the month-long training, they learn how to correctly identify different types of explosives and how to spot other remnants of war such as booby traps.
They then learn how to dispose of them to make sure the area is safe for civilians.
Topics: News
Lucy Devine