Extract from ABC News
They are scattered throughout fields, forests and buried under roads.
They have even been hidden in stuffed toys, washing machines, or attached to dead bodies as booby traps.
After more than 15 months of Russia's full-scale invasion, Ukraine is believed to be covered in more landmines and unexploded ordnance than any other country in the world.
It is estimated up to 30 per cent of its territory is now contaminated, with mine incidents being reported daily.
On average, three civilians are killed or injured by explosive remnants of war each day, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).
Warning: This story contains an image of a dead body.
The staggering scale of the issue was brought to the world's attention again last week when the Nova Kakhovka dam blast dislodged potentially hundreds of landmines.
Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said around 170,000 square kilometres of land — more than double the size of NSW — across Ukraine has been contaminated with "death traps".
These include "buried landmines, trip-wire mines, mined buildings, cars, and infrastructure", he said.
Kyiv-based journalist and former British Army bomb disposal officer Steve Brown said the extent of the issue was beyond what the world had ever faced.
"The problem in Ukraine is far exceeding what the de-mining community has dealt with up to now, even after some of the most terrible conflicts around the world," he told the ABC.
"In terms of quantity, it's potentially mind-blowing."
Meanwhile, international mine-clearing groups on the ground say they are coming across new "smart mines" never before seen in a conflict.
So, what is the country up against, and what innovations and resources does Ukraine need to tackle such a mammoth de-mining task?
Evidence of banned anti-personnel mines
Russian forces are known to have used at least 13 types of anti-personnel mines in Ukraine since February 2022, according to a Human Rights Watch (HRW) briefing released this week.
Both sides are also extensively deploying anti-vehicle mines, also called anti-tank mines.
At least 13 types have been documented, with the TM-62 reported as the most frequently used anti-tank landmine.
Ukraine is a signatory of the 1997 Mine Ban Treaty, which prohibits any use of anti-personnel mines, but not anti-vehicle mines.
Russia is not part of the treaty but it is bound by bans and restrictions on mines, booby traps and other devices outlined in the UN Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons.
Moscow continues to develop new anti-personnel mines, with evidence of some made as recently as 2021, according to the latest Landmine Monitor Report.
John Shanahan, a retired brigadier and the managing director of mine detection technology firm MRead, said it was the modern and "smart mines" that were making the situation worse.
"A lot of the de-mining that's been going on over the last 10, 20, 30 years since World War II has been with the older mines," he told the ABC.
"Now you've got smart mines that sense people."
New 'jumping' mines among the lethal landscape
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) says the vast majority of mines being used are "victim-activated", which require force to set them off.
For some, it only takes 5 kilograms of pressure for them to detonate.
The POM-3 "Medallion" mine — which until the invasion of Ukraine had "never before seen in combat" — explodes by sensing human footsteps.
Commonly known as the "jumping" or "bouncing" mine, POM-3s were first discovered early on in the Kharkiv region.
The mines are laid using a rocket launcher that delivers them from five to 15 kilometres away.
They are equipped with a seismic sensor so they explode when approached — rather than when they are stepped on.
They can "jump" 1.5 metres when set off, detonating mid-air and producing about 2,000 fragments that are lethal up to 16 metres away.
Erik Tollefsen, head of the weapons contamination unit for the ICRC, said the majority of anti-personnel mines his teams in Ukraine were coming across were older ones from Soviet stores, but bouncing mines were frequently being used.
One of the "trickiest" anti-personnel mines found in civilian areas is the PFM mine, also known as the "butterfly" or "petal" mine, Mr Tollefsen said.
The internationally banned mines are small, green and plastic, resembling a little toy.
They are packed with 37 grams of liquid explosives, typically having enough force to blow off a foot or leg.
"It's just the slightest touch and they can detonate," Mr Tollefsen said.
And although they had a self-destruct mechanism to detonate after a certain time, in more than 50 per cent of instances that did not work, meaning they could remain a threat for years to come, he added.
Both Russia and Ukraine have been accused of using the Soviet-produced PFMs.
A HRW report from January called for an investigation into their use, claiming Ukraine might have scattered the mines in and around the eastern Ukrainian city of Izium when the area was under Russian control.
Booby traps found in toys and washing machines
There has also been evidence that Russian forces have laid victim-activated booby traps and improvised explosive devices (IEDs) across several regions.
They are often placed in civilian areas, left behind when an enemy withdraws from a position.
While the explosives are generally intended to attack the enemy, they can also deliberately target civilians to slow the population coming back, Mr Shanahan says.
In Bucha, the Ukrainian government's de-mining units found booby-trapped dead bodies, forcing soldiers to drag corpses from the street with cables over fears they might explode.
Authorities also shared videos of explosives attached to trip-wires in backyards.
"They can use trip-wires, pressure plates or light sensitivity, so as you open a door and bring the light in it triggers it," Mr Shanahan said.
"Or you close the door and it goes dark and triggers it.
"So for families trying to come back it's very easy to be caught up in the collateral of the booby traps."
Landmine clearance charity HALO Trust has reported grenades being hidden in fluffy children's toys in liberated cities.
In Kherson, a hand grenade was found jerry-rigged into the detergent tray of a home's washing machine, according to Associated Press reports.
A street sign had also been installed to maliciously direct passers-by towards a deadly minefield.
The main way of dealing with booby traps is to make records of where they have been found, so authorities can grid-reference an area to get an idea of where they may still be hiding.
"But that seldom happens" when a country is in the midst of conflict, Mr Shanahan says.
De-mining 'a mouthful at a time'
Landmine clearance is a complex and multi-faceted task, which differs significantly depending on whether it is carried out for military or humanitarian purposes.
For military and combat contexts, the equipment and techniques can often be "crude" and imprecise, Ian Mansfield, landmine consultant and former Australian Army engineer officer, said.
Vehicles and machines tend to just push mines out of the path rather than deactivate them.
"In combat, you just want to get through the minefield and keep going," Mr Mansfield told the ABC.
On the civilian side, clearing is much more articulate and deliberate, with the aim being to completely clear an area so it can be returned for use.
It involves a coordinated response between government and donor groups to survey, map, and prioritise areas to then undertake clearance activities.
Humanitarian clearance is becoming more sophisticated, but the problem has become so vast in Ukraine there is no easy solution, Mr Brown said.
"The best way to eat an elephant is a mouthful at a time, and that's the same as the de-mining problem here," he said.
Mr Mansfield said it would be a process that would take time, but "it's not mission impossible".
"You just do the surveys, set priorities, and then allocate the resources to do it," he said.
"Mozambique was heavily affected and they finished the job. They got onto it and have done it."
Mix of old tools and innovation
There has been innovation with handheld GPS devices, drones, remote- and heat-sensing technology, and satellite imagery which can help speed up and improve the process.
The ICRC recently demonstrated a new drone that uses artificial intelligence to locate mines and explosives.
"We're looking for the energy stored in the mine and the unexploded ordnance in terms of thermic heat," Mr Tollefsen said.
Mr Shanahan's organisation MRead has partnered with the CSIRO to develop another type of technology that uses magnetic resonance — similar to what's used for MRI scans — to look for the content and make-up of the mine.
As opposed to metal detectors, which can pick up bottle tops and shrapnel, it will be able to pinpoint mines by detecting TNT, or remnants of other explosives.
It was "potentially game-changing", Mr Shanahan said, but it was still in the early stages.
Although technology may improve the de-mining process in the longer term, Mr Shanahan said in the foreseeable future Ukraine would still need to use a combination of old and new techniques.
"A lot of people get fixated on the golden bullet," he said.
"But as technology improves to deal with this, the battlefield is also evolving with new types of smart munitions."
Ultimately, the response will still largely come from human power, with teams using metal detectors to locate mines and map areas.
Mr Brown believes even if the international community dedicated all its de-mining resources to Ukraine it would still take about 50 years and thousands of dedicated workers to complete the work.
"We won't be going back to the Stone Age, but we're really going to be back to that basic tool of mine clearance, which is a man on his feet searching, and that's slow and takes time," he said.
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