- Antonina Kulhava helps clear mines left by the war in Ukraine with MAG (Mines Advisory Group)
- Cleared fields are now farmed again, including sunflower cultivation areas
- Kulhava switched from finance and baking to mine clearance despite risks
Antonina Kulhava, a 32-year-old Ukrainian woman, is helping clear mines and other explosives left behind by the war in Ukraine.
Some of the fields cleared by her team are now being used by farmers again, with sunflowers growing where mines were once found, she told The Independent.
"The fields where we previously worked are being cultivated by farmers, and there are a field of sunflowers where the mines were," Kulhava said, who works with the Mines Advisory Group (MAG).
"It's nothing like I've done before. It helps people in Ukraine because the more we clean our lands, the more people will come back to their homes, to their lands, and also just to make Ukraine safer," she said.
"It's an interesting and challenging job," she said.
Photo Credit: MAG (Mines Advisory Group)
Kulhava said she had never worked in mine clearance before. She previously worked in finance and later became a pastry chef. While waiting for a visa to move to Czechia, she found a job opening with MAG. She initially thought the job was too dangerous. But after learning more about it, she decided to apply.
She said that she did not tell her parents about the job at first because she did not want them to worry. They were shocked when they later found out. "I think that somewhere deep in their souls they would like me to not work in this area, to not be involved, but what we can do?" she said.
"It is dangerous, of course. Everything depends on the threat because on different sites we have different threat levels but it can be really dangerous," she added.
Ukraine is one of the most heavily mined countries in the world. Around 20 to 25% of the country's land, covering more than 139,000 square kilometres, is believed to be contaminated with mines and other dangerous weapons. This area is larger than England and Wales combined.
According to UN Women, women make up around 30 to 35% of people working in humanitarian mine action. Only around 12% are directly involved in fieldwork.
Kulhava said she was not confident when she started because she had never dealt with explosives before. "It was difficult for me because my inner thoughts were like, 'All this explosive ordnance, mines, bombs, it's male stuff'," she said.
Kulhava was later invited to the UK by the Imperial War Museum to record an interview about her experiences during the war. She said the work has also changed the way she looks at life.
"I've started to appreciate my life more because there are things that you think: 'I can do it later, I can do it later'. But you realise that you need to live your life now," she said.
