Man, machine and AI combine in battle to clear Ukraine of mines

Near the village of Myrotske in central Ukraine, a dozen mine clearers moved painstakingly forward in rows, sweeping ‌metal detectors before them in time with one another, like reapers scything wheat.

They are working to make the woods and fields safe from mines and unexploded ordnance left behind after Russia occupied the area, some 40 km (25 miles) northwest of Kyiv, early in its invasion four years ago.

Huge areas of ​Ukraine are littered with mines and other discarded ordnance after years of fighting.

"Unfortunately, Ukraine is the most heavily mined ​country in the world," said Olena Shustova, media manager for demining charity HALO Trust. "Ukraine will not be ⁠demined in less than 10 years."

HALO began demining operations here after a Ukrainian serviceman from a unit stationed nearby stepped on ​an anti-personnel mine while collecting firewood two years ago, showing the dangers left by the war even when the battlefield moves elsewhere.

"Everywhere ​where there was occupation, there are minefields and explosive ordnance," said Shustova. HALO, the world's largest international mine action organisation, employs 1,350 nationals in Ukraine.

According to state-run Demine Ukraine, more than 132,000 square kilometres (50,965 square miles) - an area roughly the size of Greece or the U.S. state of Mississippi - ​remain contaminated by mines. So far, nearly 42,000 sq km have been made safe, it said.

Given the huge scale of the task, ​HALO Trust has turned to AI to analyse high-resolution drone imagery of contaminated areas and train systems to identify mines and explosive remnants, achieving ‌around ⁠70% accuracy already.

"The process may take decades, but advances in technology are helping to accelerate it," Shustova said.

UNMANNED MACHINES SPEED UP DEMINING

At another demining site north of Kyiv, Oleksandr Liatsevych shelters inside a portable steel cage with reinforced windows where he peers into virtual reality glasses and uses a joystick to guide a customised digger a few metres away. The huge machine excavates earth littered with ​unexploded ordnance and chews it up ​in a specialised grinder.

The ⁠unmanned excavator is one way in which demining groups are clearing vast areas of contaminated land more quickly and safely, in a conflict where automation, drones and artificial intelligence are revolutionising warfare.

"The difference ​between driving from a cabin and driving a remote joystick is big," said Liatsevych, a ​39-year-old former civil servant ⁠and farmer from the southern town of Huliaipole, on the front line between Ukrainian and Russian forces.

"As I didn't play many computer games as a child, it was difficult for me at first."

In the woods nearby, deminer Olha Kava wears a protective vest and visor ⁠as she ​crouches to search for a possible anti-personnel mine in the old-fashioned way, by ​hand.

The former travel agent and mother-of-three applied to work as a deminer after her friends joined the armed forces following Russia's full-scale invasion.

"Of course, there is fear," ​she said. "It ... motivates you to do your job correctly and responsibly."

-Reuters