Larisa Sysenko and her husband Viktor Sysenko stand in the yard of their damaged house in the village of Kamyanka, in the Kharkiv region, on May 1, 2025, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Ukraine, as every schoolchild will tell you, is one of the great bread baskets of the world, its black earth so rich and fertile you want to scoop it up in your hands and smell it. But that dark soil is now almost certainly the most mined in the world, experts told AFP. More than three years of unrelenting artillery barrages -- the biggest since World War II -- have sown it with millions of tons of ordnance, much of it unexploded. (Photo by Ivan SAMOILOV / AFP)
There were so many mines on Larisa Sysenko’s small farm in Kamyanka in eastern Ukraine after the Russians withdrew that she and her husband Viktor began demining it themselves — with rakes.
Along the front line at Korobchyne near Kharkiv, Mykola Pereverzev started clearing fields with his farm machinery.
“My tractor was blown up three times. We had to get a new one. It was completely unrepairable. But we ended up clearing 200 hectares of minefields in two months,” he said.
“Absolutely everyone demines by themselves,” declared Igor Kniazev, who farms half an hour from Larisa’s.
Ukraine is one of the world’s renowned breadbaskets, its black earth so rich and fertile you want to scoop it up and inhale its aroma.
But that dark soil is now almost certainly the most heavily mined on the planet, experts told the AFP news agency.
More than three years of relentless artillery barrages — the most intense since World War II — have scattered it with millions of tonnes of ordnance, much still unexploded.
Experts estimate one in 10 shells fail to detonate, with up to a third of North Korean munitions fired by Russia remaining intact, their high explosives deteriorating where they fall.
Yet the drones revolutionising warfare in Ukraine may also transform the demining process.
Ukraine and many of the 80-plus nongovernmental organisations and commercial groups operating there already employ drones to accelerate the enormous task of land clearance, supported by substantial international funding.
Despite the dangers and official warnings, farmers themselves often take the initiative, like the Sysenkos.
Larisa Sysenko and her husband Viktor Sysenko stand in the yard of their damaged house in the village of Kamyanka, in the Kharkiv region, on May 1, 2025, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Ukraine, as every schoolchild will tell you, is one of the great bread baskets of the world, its black earth so rich and fertile you want to scoop it up in your hands and smell it. But that dark soil is now almost certainly the most mined in the world, experts told AFP. More than three years of unrelenting artillery barrages -- the biggest since World War II -- have sown it with millions of tons of ordnance, much of it unexploded. (Photo by Ivan SAMOILOV / AFP)
They were among the first to return to devastated Kamyanka, which Russian forces occupied from March to September 2022.
Two weeks after Ukrainian soldiers recaptured the village, Larisa and Viktor returned to find their house uninhabitable, without utilities.
After waiting out the winter, they returned in March 2023 to take stock and begin cleanup, first removing the gallows Russian soldiers had erected in their yard.
Then they started demining, with rakes. “There were many mines, and our guys in the Ukrainian army couldn’t prioritise us. So we slowly demined ourselves with rakes,” Larisa said cheerfully.
Boxes of Russian artillery shells — 152mm howitzer shells specifically, Viktor noted with a mischievous smile — still sit stacked before their house.
“I served in Soviet artillery, so I know something about them,” the 56-year-old added.
That summer, Swiss FSD Foundation deminers discovered 54 mines in the Sysenkos’ field.
The deminers instructed the Sysenkos “to evacuate the house”.
“Their protocols prohibited us from staying. So we complied. The demining machine traversed the area repeatedly, triggering numerous explosions.”
While Kamyanka remains largely a ghost village with gutted homes, about 40 people have returned — far below its pre-war population of 1,200.
Many fear the mines, and several residents have stepped on them.
Yet farmers cannot afford to wait and have resumed working the vast fields of Ukraine’s renowned “chernozem” soil, famous for its intense blackness and fertility.
“Looking at surrounding villages, farmers have modified tractors themselves for clearance and are already planting wheat and sunflowers,” Viktor added.
Mykola Pereverzev, 49, a tractor driver and employee of the Mayak farming company, is interviewed in the village of Korobochkino, Kharkiv region, on April 29, 2025, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Ukraine, as every schoolchild will tell you, is one of the great bread baskets of the world, its black earth so rich and fertile you want to scoop it up in your hands and smell it. But that dark soil is now almost certainly the most mined in the world, experts told AFP. More than three years of unrelenting artillery barrages -- the biggest since World War II -- have sown it with millions of tons of ordnance, much of it unexploded. (Photo by Ivan SAMOILOV / AFP)A mine warning sign is displayed at mine clearance site in the village of Kamyanka, Kharkiv region, on May 1, 2025, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Ukraine, as every schoolchild will tell you, is one of the great bread baskets of the world, its black earth so rich and fertile you want to scoop it up in your hands and smell it. But that dark soil is now almost certainly the most mined in the world, experts told AFP. More than three years of unrelenting artillery barrages -- the biggest since World War II -- have sown it with millions of tons of ordnance, much of it unexploded. (Photo by Ivan SAMOILOV / AFP)A HALO Trust deminer drives a tractor designed for remote demining in the village of Tamaryne, on May 6, 2025, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Ukraine, as every schoolchild will tell you, is one of the great bread baskets of the world, its black earth so rich and fertile you want to scoop it up in your hands and smell it. But that dark soil is now almost certainly the most mined in the world, experts told AFP. More than three years of unrelenting artillery barrages -- the biggest since World War II -- have sown it with millions of tons of ordnance, much of it unexploded. (Photo by Ivan SAMOILOV / AFP)Ukrainian farmer Igor Kniazev, 45, stands in front of his field that is divided between one that is still contaminated by landmines and one that has been decontaminated in the village of Dovhenke, Kharkiv region, on May 2, 2025, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Ukraine, as every schoolchild will tell you, is one of the great bread baskets of the world, its black earth so rich and fertile you want to scoop it up in your hands and smell it. But that dark soil is now almost certainly the most mined in the world, experts told AFP. More than three years of unrelenting artillery barrages -- the biggest since World War II -- have sown it with millions of tons of ordnance, much of it unexploded. (Photo by Ivan SAMOILOV / AFP)A remotely controlled GCS-200 demining complex is at work in a minefield near the village of Korobochkino, Kharkiv region, on April 29, 2025, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Ukraine, as every schoolchild will tell you, is one of the great bread baskets of the world, its black earth so rich and fertile you want to scoop it up in your hands and smell it. But that dark soil is now almost certainly the most mined in the world, experts told AFP. More than three years of unrelenting artillery barrages -- the biggest since World War II -- have sown it with millions of tons of ordnance, much of it unexploded. (Photo by Ivan SAMOILOV / AFP)Lidia Borova, a resident of Izyum who stepped on a mine in the Izyum forest and is learning to live anew with a prosthetic right leg, stands in her garden in Izyum on April 30, 2025, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Ukraine, as every schoolchild will tell you, is one of the great bread baskets of the world, its black earth so rich and fertile you want to scoop it up in your hands and smell it. But that dark soil is now almost certainly the most mined in the world, experts told AFP. More than three years of unrelenting artillery barrages -- the biggest since World War II -- have sown it with millions of tons of ordnance, much of it unexploded. (Photo by Ivan SAMOILOV / AFP)A photo shows Russian military boxes left in the yard of Larisa Sysenko's damaged house in the village of Kamyanka, Kharkiv region, on May 1, 2025, during the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Ukraine, as every schoolchild will tell you, is one of the great bread baskets of the world, its black earth so rich and fertile you want to scoop it up in your hands and smell it. But that dark soil is now almost certainly the most mined in the world, experts told AFP. More than three years of unrelenting artillery barrages -- the biggest since World War II -- have sown it with millions of tons of ordnance, much of it unexploded. (Photo by Ivan SAMOILOV / AFP)Igor Kniazev's father Anatolii Kniazev smokes in front of a poster raising awareness o the danger of mines in the village of Dovhenke, Kharkiv region, on May 2, 2025, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Ukraine, as every schoolchild will tell you, is one of the great bread baskets of the world, its black earth so rich and fertile you want to scoop it up in your hands and smell it. But that dark soil is now almost certainly the most mined in the world, experts told AFP. More than three years of unrelenting artillery barrages -- the biggest since World War II -- have sown it with millions of tons of ordnance, much of it unexploded. (Photo by Ivan SAMOILOV / AFP)HALO Trust workers work in a minefield near the village of Bezymenne, Mykolaiv region, on May 5, 2025, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Ukraine, as every schoolchild will tell you, is one of the great bread baskets of the world, its black earth so rich and fertile you want to scoop it up in your hands and smell it. But that dark soil is now almost certainly the most mined in the world, experts told AFP. More than three years of unrelenting artillery barrages -- the biggest since World War II -- have sown it with millions of tons of ordnance, much of it unexploded. (Photo by Ivan SAMOILOV / AFP)
