IMAS EOD L2+ Ukraine ‘Ladies’ Course gets worldwide media coverage
Demolitions Day – 5th of April 2022.
The IMAS EOD Level 2+ ‘Ukraine specific’ course, hosted and delivered by MAT Kosovo, which commenced on the 25th of April at the MAT Kosovo training school, in Peja, Kosovo, has sparked a lot of international and local (Balkan) media interest. In these last few days, our school has been the focus for visits from different media outlets and their reporters. This focus on what we are doing has generated a great deal of positive energy and the articles written and filmed with us have reached all corners of the globe!
These articles were translated in different languages, throughout Europe, North America, Africa, Asia, and Australia, with further interest coming in day after day. The female’s course, which is the first of its type outside of the Ukraine since the invasion by the Russian Federation, highlights the experiences of these brave students, and the amazing job the Friends of Ukraine EOD charity with their sponsors, such as the Sir Bobby Charlton Foundation and others, pledging funds earmarked for such training.
We’ve posted below only a few of the countless articles that were shared:
Ukrainian women train in Kosovo to find, clear landmines
Original Article by the INDEPENDENT UK | independent.co.uk – April 30, 2022
Learning to identify and defuse explosives is something a 20-year-old English teacher in Ukraine never thought she would have to do.
Learning to identify and defuse explosives is something Anastasiia Minchukova never thought she would have to do as an English teacher in Ukraine. Yet there she was wearing a face shield, armed with a landmine detector and venturing into a field dotted with danger warnings.
Russia’s war in Ukraine took Minchukova, 20, and five other women to Kosovo, where they are attending a hands-on course in clearing landmines and other dangers that may remain hidden across their country once combat ends.
“There is a huge demand on people who know how to do demining because the war will be over soon,” Minchukova said. “We believe there is so much work to be done.”
The 18-day training camp takes place at a range in the western town of Peja where a Malta-based company regularly offers courses for job-seekers, firms working in former war zones, humanitarian organizations and government agencies.
Kosovo was the site of a devastating 1998-99 armed conflict between ethnic Albanian separatists and Serbian forces that killed about 13,000 people and left thousands of unexploded mines in need of clearing. Praedium Consulting Malta’s range includes bombed and derelict buildings as well as expanses of vegetation.
Instructor Artur Tigani, who tailored the curriculum to reflect Ukraine’s environment, said he was glad to share his small Balkan nation’s experience with the Ukrainian women. Though 23 years have passed, “it’s still fresh in our memories, the difficulties we met when we started clearance in Kosovo,” Tigani said.
Tigani is a highly trained and experienced mine action operations officer who served as an engineer in the former Yugoslav army during the 1980s. He has been deployed in his native Kosovo, Sri Lanka, Uganda, Congo, Rwanda and Kenya, and conducted training missions in Syria, and Iraq.
During a class last week, he took his trainees through a makeshift minefield before moving to an improvised outdoor classroom featuring a huge board with various samples of explosives and mines.
While it is impossible to assess how littered with mines and unexploded ordnance Ukraine is at the moment, the aftermaths of other conflicts suggest the problem will be huge.
“In many parts of the world, explosive remnants of war continue to kill and maim thousands of civilians each year during and long after active hostilities have ended. The majority of victims are children,” the International Committee of the Red Cross testified at a December U.N. conference.
“Locating (unexploded ordnance) in the midst of rubble and picking them out from among a wide array of everyday objects, many of which are made of similar material is a dangerous, onerous, and often extremely time-consuming task,” the Red Cross said.
Mine Action Review, a Norwegian Organization that researches clearance efforts worldwide, reported that 56 countries were contaminated with unexploded ordnance as of October, with Afghanistan, Cambodia and Iraq carrying the heaviest burdens, followed by Angola, Bosnia, Thailand, Turkey and Yemen.
Thousands of civilians are believed to have died since the start of the war on Feb. 24 as Russian forces bombed cities and towns across the country, reducing many to rubble. In recent days, Russia has turned its fury toward the industrial heartland in the east of Ukraine.
Military analysts say it appears Russian forces have employed anti-personnel and anti-vehcile mines, while Ukraine has used anti-tank mines to try to prevent the Russians from gaining ground.
With Ukrainian men ages 18-60 prohibited from leaving their country and most engaged in defending it, the women wanted to help any way they could despite the risks involved in mine clearing.
“It’s dangerous all over Ukraine, even if you are in a relatively safe region,” said Minchukova, who is from central Ukraine.
Another of the Ukrainian students, Yuliia Katelik, 38, took her three children to safety in Poland early in the war. She went back to Ukraine and then joined the demining training to help make sure it’s safe for her children when they return home to the eastern city of Kramatorsk, where a rocket attack on a crowded train station killed more than 50 people this month.
Katelik said her only wish is to reunite with her family and see “the end of this nightmare.” Knowing how to spot booby-traps that could shatter their lives again is a necessary skill, she said.
“Acutely, probably as a mother, I do understand that there is a problem and it’s quite serious, especially for the children,” Katelik said.
Minchukova, wearing military-style clothes, said she was doubtful that normal life, as they all knew it before the war, will ever fully return.
“What am I missing? Peace,” she said. “I’m dreaming about peace, about sleeping in my bed not worried about going to bomb shelters all the time. I miss the people I lost.”
The Kosovo training center plans to work with more groups of Ukrainian women, both in Peja and in Ukraine.
“We’re planning as well to go to Ukraine very soon and start with delivery of courses there, on the theater” of war, Tigani said.
‘A huge demand’: Ukrainian women train to clear landmines
Original Article by Florent Bajrami | washingtonpost.com – April 30, 2022
PEJA, Kosovo — Learning to identify and defuse explosives is something Anastasiia Minchukova never thought she would have to do as an English teacher in Ukraine. Yet there she was wearing a face shield, armed with a landmine detector and venturing into a field dotted with danger warnings.
Russia’s war in Ukraine took Minchukova, 20, and five other women to Kosovo, where they are attending a hands-on course in clearing landmines and other dangers that may remain hidden across their country once combat ends.
“There is a huge demand on people who know how to do demining because the war will be over soon,” Minchukova said. “We believe there is so much work to be done.”
The 18-day training camp takes place at a range in the western town of Peja where a Malta-based company regularly offers courses for job-seekers, firms working in former war zones, humanitarian organizations and government agencies.
Kosovo was the site of a devastating 1998-99 armed conflict between ethnic Albanian separatists and Serbian forces that killed about 13,000 people and left thousands of unexploded mines in need of clearing. Praedium Consulting Malta’s range includes bombed and derelict buildings as well as expanses of vegetation.
Instructor Artur Tigani, who tailored the curriculum to reflect Ukraine’s environment, said he was glad to share his small Balkan nation’s experience with the Ukrainian women. Though 23 years have passed, “it’s still fresh in our memories, the difficulties we met when we started clearance in Kosovo,” Tigani said.
Tigani is a highly trained and experienced mine operations officer who served as an engineer in the former Yugoslav army during the 1980s. He has been deployed in his native Kosovo, Sri Lanka, Uganda, Congo, Rwanda and Kenya, and conducted training missions in Syria and Iraq.
During a class last week, he took his trainees through a makeshift minefield before moving to an improvised outdoor classroom featuring a huge board with various samples of explosives and mines.
While it is impossible to assess how littered with mines and unexploded ordnance Ukraine is at the moment, the aftermaths of other conflicts suggest the problem will be huge.
“In many parts of the world, explosive remnants of war continue to kill and maim thousands of civilians each year during and long after active hostilities have ended. The majority of victims are children,” the International Committee of the Red Cross testified at a December U.N. conference.
“Locating (unexploded ordnance) in the midst of rubble and picking them out from among a wide array of everyday objects, many of which are made of similar material is a dangerous, onerous and often extremely time-consuming task,” the Red Cross said.
Mine Action Review, a Norwegian organization that monitors clearance efforts worldwide, reported that 56 countries were contaminated with unexploded ordnance as of October, with Afghanistan, Cambodia and Iraq carrying the heaviest burdens, followed by Angola, Bosnia, Thailand, Turkey and Yemen.
Thousands of civilians are believed to have died in Ukraine since Russia invaded on Feb. 24. Russian forces have bombed cities and towns across the country, reducing many to rubble.
Military analysts say it appears Russian forces have employed anti-personnel and anti-vehicle mines, while Ukraine has used anti-tank mines to try to prevent the Russians from gaining ground.
With Ukrainian men from 18 to 60 years old prohibited from leaving their country and most engaged in defending it, the women wanted to help any way they could despite the risks involved in mine clearing.
“It’s dangerous all over Ukraine, even if you are in a relatively safe region,” said Minchukova, who is from central Ukraine.
Another Ukrainian student, Yuliia Katelik, 38, took her three children to safety in Poland early in the war. She went back to Ukraine and then joined the demining training to help make sure it’s safe for her children when they return home to the eastern city of Kramatorsk, where a rocket attack on a crowded train station killed more than 50 people this month.
Katelik said her only wish is to reunite with her family and see “the end of this nightmare.” Knowing how to spot booby-traps that could shatter their lives again is a necessary skill, she said.
“Acutely, probably as a mother, I do understand that there is a problem and it’s quite serious, especially for the children,” Katelik said.
Minchukova, wearing military-style clothes, said she was doubtful that normal life, as they all knew it before the war, will ever fully return.
“What am I missing? Peace,” she said. “I’m dreaming about peace, about sleeping in my bed not worried about going to bomb shelters all the time. I miss the people I lost.”
The Kosovo training center plans to work with more groups of Ukrainian women, both in Peja and in Ukraine.
“We’re planning as well to go to Ukraine very soon and start with delivery of courses there, on the theater” of war, Tigani said.
‘Not afraid’: Ukraine women learn to demine in Kosovo
Original Article by Ismet Hajdari | timesofisrael.com – April 28, 2022
Trainees anticipate ‘decades’ of clearing mines in their home country following Russian invasion.
PEJA, Kosovo (AFP) — Kateryna Grybinichenko chose to sign up after rockets fell on her home city of Sloviansk, in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region.
The 36-year-old wanted to help — so she joined a band of Ukrainian women taking part in an intensive demining course in Kosovo, a place all too familiar with clearing deadly explosives. The trainees have traveled hundreds of miles, hoping to protect their homeland for decades to come.
After learning their craft from the experts, the women plan to return to Ukraine and put it into practice in areas where Russian troops have withdrawn.
PEJA, Kosovo (AFP) — Kateryna Grybinichenko chose to sign up after rockets fell on her home city of Sloviansk, in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region.
The 36-year-old wanted to help — so she joined a band of Ukrainian women taking part in an intensive demining course in Kosovo, a place all too familiar with clearing deadly explosives. The trainees have traveled hundreds of miles, hoping to protect their homeland for decades to come.
After learning their craft from the experts, the women plan to return to Ukraine and put it into practice in areas where Russian troops have withdrawn.
“There are various ways to fight,” said Anastasiia Minchukova, one of the eight women who applied for the scheme. The 20-year-old English teacher, who dons a blue protective apron and a visor for the training, said there is a “huge demand for people who know [about] demining” in Ukraine.
“The only reason I’m here is to help my country,” she said.
The trainees are being taught how to detect, identify and disable explosives on the course organized by the Mines Awareness Trust (MAT) Kosovo organization. Six women started the three-week program in the western town of Peja, known as Pec to Serbs, on Monday, with two others set to arrive soon. The organizers plan to take on more trainees in the future.
The course has been specifically set up in response to the invasion of Ukraine, and focuses on Russian and former Soviet arms, including guided weapons, mines and rockets. It is open to men too, but Ukrainian males aged 18 to 60 are banned from leaving the country. And the women here want to take part in the defense of Ukraine. The MAT said this course is the first of its kind outside Ukraine since the Russian invasion began in February.
Kosovo was chosen to host the scheme because of its “firsthand experience,” chief instructor Artur Tigani said. “We have gone through quite a similar situation, especially when it comes to contamination with unexploded devices.”
An estimated 13,000 people lost their lives in the war between Serbian forces and ethnic Albanian guerrillas in the late 1990s. The conflict ended after a NATO air campaign forced Serbian troops to withdraw from the territory, paving the way for independence in 2008.
But the war left the former Serbian province with 4,500 minefields, according to US estimates after the war. The devices were scattered mainly in the mountainous Peja region, close to the Albanian border, where Tirana shipped arms and supplies to Albanian guerrillas. With international help, most of the mines have been cleared, and the risk is now officially assessed as “light.” The Kosovo instructors have also delivered training in Syria, Iraq and Libya.
“It is our life’s mission to save lives and help others save lives,” said Tigani.
The Ukrainian trainees are aware of the huge challenge they face when they get back home. They expect to join emergency services and get to work when they return on May 13.
“I’ve seen, while traveling in [Ukraine], the huge amount of the abandoned ammunition and unexploded ordnance laying on the ground,” Grybinichenko said.
It is thought it could take decades to rid Ukraine of mines. Perrine Benoist, of the Handicap International organization, has said it will likely “take 50 years to clear everything.” Minchukova knows that she and her fellow trainees have taken on a perilous task. But she said: “It’s dangerous all over Ukraine, even if you are in a relatively safe region.”
“I’m ready for it,” she said. “I’m a Ukrainian. I’m not afraid of anything. I know we will have a chance to prove [we are] worthy of doing the same as men.”
‘Not afraid’: Ukraine women learn to demine in Kosovo
Original Article by AFP / France 24 | france24.com – April 28, 2022
Peja (Kosovo) (AFP) – Kateryna Grybinichenko chose to sign up after rockets fell on her home city of Sloviansk, in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region.
The 36-year-old wanted to help — so she joined a band of Ukrainian women taking part in an intensive demining course in Kosovo, a place all too familiar with clearing deadly explosives.
The trainees have travelled hundreds of miles, hoping to protect their homeland for decades to come.
After learning their craft from the experts, the women plan to return to Ukraine and put it into practice in areas where Russian troops have withdrawn.
“There are various ways to fight,” said Anastasiia Minchukova, one of the eight women who applied for the scheme.
The 20-year-old English teacher, who dons a blue protective apron and a visor for the training, said there is a “huge demand for people who know (about) demining” in Ukraine.
“The only reason I’m here is to help my country,” she said.
The trainees are being taught how to detect, identify and disable explosives on the course organised by the Mines Awareness Trust (MAT) Kosovo NGO.
Six women started the three-week programme in the western town of Peja, known as Pec to Serbs, on Monday, with two others set to arrive soon. The organisers plan to take on more trainees in the future.
The course has been specifically set up in response to the invasion of Ukraine, and focuses on Russian and former Soviet arms, including guided weapons, mines and rockets.
It is open to men too, but Ukrainian males aged 18 to 60 are banned from leaving the country. And the women here want to take part in the defence of Ukraine.
The MAT said this course is the first of its kind outside Ukraine since the Russian invasion began in February.
‘First-hand experience’
Kosovo was chosen to host the scheme because of its “first-hand experience”, chief instructor Artur Tigani said.
“We have gone through quite a similar situation, especially when it comes to contamination with unexploded devices.”
An estimated 13,000 people lost their lives in the war between Serbian forces and ethnic Albanian guerrillas in the late 1990s.
The conflict ended after a NATO air campaign forced Serbian troops to withdraw from the territory, paving the way for independence in 2008.
But the war left the former Serbian province with 4,500 minefields, according to US estimates after the war.
The devices were scattered mainly in the mountainous Peja region, close to the Albanian border, where Tirana shipped arms and supplies to Albanian guerrillas.
With international help, most of the mines have been cleared, and the risk is now officially assessed as “light”.
The Kosovo instructors have also delivered training in Syria, Iraq and Libya.
“It is our life’s mission to save lives and help others save lives,” said Tigani.
Huge challenge
The Ukrainian trainees are aware of the huge challenge they face when they get back home.
They expect to join emergency services and get to work when they return on May 13.
“I’ve seen, while travelling in (Ukraine), the huge amount of the abandoned ammunition and unexploded ordnance laying on the ground,” Grybinichenko said.
It is thought it could take decades to rid Ukraine of mines. Perrine Benoist, of the Handicap International NGO, has said it will likely “take 50 years to clear everything.”
Minchukova knows that she and her fellow trainees have taken on a perilous task.
But she said: “It’s dangerous all over Ukraine, even if you are in a relatively safe region”.
“I’m ready for it. I’m a Ukrainian. I’m not afraid of anything.
“I know we will have a chance to prove (we are) worthy of doing the same as men.”
Ukrainian women train to demine their country
Original Article by Jonathan Hepburn | abc.net.au – April 26, 2022
Six Ukrainian women have started demining training in Kosovo to dispose of explosive ordnances back home.
They are the first group of Ukrainian deminers to be trained by private company MAT Kosovo.
Instructors are teaching them how to dispose of unexploded ordnance, such as cluster munitions, minefields, booby traps and other explosive remnants.
Trainer Artur Tigani said Kosovo remembered war:
“[What] we have is still fresh in our memories, although it’s passed about 23 years now. It’s still fresh in our memories, the difficulties we met when we started clearance in Kosovo. So the training centre is built upon our experience and it’s like firsthand experience.”
Trainee Anastasiia Minchukova, 20, said she was “dreaming about peace, about sleeping in my bed not worried about going to bomb shelters all the time”.
“[In Ukraine] there is a huge demand on people who know how to do demining because the war will be over soon,” she said.
“We believe there is so much work to be done. I think I will be helpful, absolutely.”
Yuliia Katelik, 38 and a mother of three from Kramatorsk, said she wanted to be able to protect children and all people.
