One Ukrainian farmer has come up with a novel idea to remove mines left in his fields after Russia's invasion -- he has kitted out his tractor with protective panels stripped from Russian tanks and operates it by remote control.
After Russian forces were driven back from parts of eastern Ukraine by a Ukrainian counteroffensive last year, swathes of fields were left covered in mines, making it perilous for farmers to sow grain for the next harvest.
The village of Hrakove was no exception and Oleksandr Kryvtsov, a general manager at his agricultural company, decided he could not wait for help from overworked official deminers to clear his field.
Instead he designed a remote controlled tractor that could withstand blasts. Using the armour from damaged Russian military vehicles to protect the body of his tractor, he bought a system that would enable one of his team to operate the tractor remotely -- from the bucket of a digger suspended in the air nearby.
"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. The tractor is safe, the mechanics were not here. Everyone's alive and safe. The equipment was restored and repaired."
Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal told a government meeting on Friday (April 28) about 30% of Ukrainian territory was mined by Russians and that the government was focused on de-mining agricultural land as soon as possible.
Serhii Dudak, head of the demining unit who oversees the work of the tractor, said the amount of work his team has to demine fields was "huge" and that the wireless tractor was good because it could clear large areas with no risk to life.
"We have no time to demine the fields. The amount of work is enormous," Dudak said. "It would take years to demine this particular field by hand and to guarantee that there are no mines here."
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