Last spring, reports circulated online that Ukrainian farmers had employed tractors to literally “tow away” Russian tanks and other vehicles that were abandoned by their crews near the front lines.
Fast forward, and another Ukrainian farmer isn’t using his tractor to steal Russian tanks.
Instead has taken parts from damaged/disabled armored vehicles and kitted out his tractor to clear minefields.
Land of Mine
Creative measures are increasingly necessary for those impacted by the conflict.
As previously reported, Russian forces have deployed enough landmines and unexploded ordnance to cover upwards of a third of Ukrainian territory.
After Russian forces had been driven back in parts of Ukraine, they left behind fields that are filled with a variety of mines and other unexploded ordnance. That makes it especially perilous for farmers to sow grain for the next harvest. According to The Wall Street Journal, which cited data from the Ukrainian government, around 30 percent of the fields even around Kyiv have or had mines that needed to be cleared.
As numerous videos on social media have so vividly reminded viewers, land mines are often powerful enough to disable a main battle tank (MBT). Many farmers are now forced to wait for the fields to be cleared, or risk running over mines or other ordnance. Last year, several farmers were killed by landmines.
Mine Clearing Tractor in Ukraine
A combination of fields filled with mines and a lack of cash would result in many Ukrainian farmers sowing smaller areas this year. It could further impact global supplies of wheat and corn to world markets.
Efforts are now underway to clear as many fields as possible, but it could take years for just the area held by Kyiv to be fully made free of mines. The situation was especially bad near the village of Hrakove. The settlement, southwest of Kharkiv, was already largely devastated by the fighting. Before the war, about 1,000 people lived there, yet when it was liberated by Ukrainian forces, just 30 people remained – mostly living in basements and gutted buildings.
Oleksandr Kryvtsov, a general manager at his agricultural company, is one of those who have returned and was determined to get back to work, but also knew that just sowing the fields could put his team at risk
Kryvtsov decided he couldn’t wait for help from overworked official de-miners/sappers to clear the fields in the area, Reuters reported. Instead, he designed a remote-controlled tractor that was fitted with armor panels from damaged Russian military vehicles.
“We started doing this just because the crop-sowing time has come and we can’t do anything because the rescue services are very busy,” Kryvtsov told Reuters.
“We ran over an anti-tank mine. The protection got blown out (but) the tractor is safe,” he said.” Everyone’s alive and safe. The equipment was restored and repaired.”
The remote-controlled tractor can be operated from a digger’s bucket suspended in the air from a safe distance.
“The amount of work is enormous,” Serhii Dudak, who is overseeing the tractor’s demining effort, told Reuters. “It would take years to demine this particular field by hand and to guarantee that there are no mines here.”
Farming is hard work, but it shouldn’t be a deadly one. Kryvtsov is now trying to help make it a bit safer, even in a former warzone.
Author Experience and Expertise
A Senior Editor for 19FortyFive, Peter Suciu is a Michigan-based writer. He has contributed to more than four dozen magazines, newspapers, and websites with over 3,200 published pieces over a twenty-year career in journalism. He regularly writes about military hardware, firearms history, cybersecurity, politics, and international affairs. Peter is also a Contributing Writer for Forbes and Clearance Jobs. You can follow him on Twitter: @PeterSuciu
