Ukraine landmine contamination expands as deminers turn to drones and AI

Ukraine's landmine contamination is widening as demining teams adapt to a battlefield shaped by drones, missiles and shifting front lines. A report published on Wednesday describes fields in eastern Ukraine where civilians are trying to make land usable again after Russian occupation and repeated fighting. It says the country remains among the most mine-contaminated in the world, with the problem now extending beyond traditional mine belts.

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The report says deminers are increasingly using drones and artificial intelligence to identify and clear explosive hazards more safely and quickly. Paul Heslop, the programme manager for mine action at the United Nations Development Programme in Ukraine, said the rise in drone-delivered munitions is turning what was already a high-intensity battle area into a much wider zone of contamination. He compared the scale of the challenge to the era when cluster munitions were dropped on the Ho Chi Minh trail.

One example in the report is Olena Kabanova, a 58-year-old civilian working in a field in eastern Ukraine that was occupied by Russian soldiers four years ago and is now back under Ukrainian control. She is shown digging carefully around a spot where a mine detector has identified a suspicious object. The report says humanitarian workers face danger not only from mines but also from drone and missile attacks, and that some workers are sometimes directly targeted.

The issue matters because landmines can keep farmland, roads and villages unusable long after active fighting has moved elsewhere. In Ukraine, the contamination is not only a humanitarian problem but also an economic one, affecting efforts to restore agriculture and civilian life in areas that have changed hands during the war. The report says newer weapons are making the task harder, including the POM-3 mine used by Russian forces, which can be mistaken for an abandoned object and is triggered by vibrations from approaching footsteps.

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The report also highlights how the nature of the threat is changing. Anda Riza, a unit commander with the Halo Trust in Kharkiv, said the POM-3 has led deminers to avoid some villages altogether. Her colleague Valeriia Shumska said the types of landmines are constantly developing and evolving, underlining how the war is producing hazards that are difficult to map and clear using older methods alone.

Ukraine has long been described as one of the world's most mine-contaminated countries, but the report suggests the scale of the problem is worsening as long-range drones expand the area exposed to attack. That has implications for humanitarian access, civilian safety and the pace of post-war recovery. It also shows how the war is creating a moving contamination zone rather than a fixed line of danger.

The use of drones and AI is presented as part of the response to that shift, with demining groups trying to move away from the traditional hands-and-knees approach. The report does not say how much land has been cleared or how many mines remain, and it gives no overall casualty figure. What remains unclear is how quickly new technology can keep pace with the expanding threat, and how far deminers will be able to work safely while attacks continue.

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