Putin’s ‘terrorist tactics’: Ukraine will take 100 years to clear deadly mines ...Middle East

Chris Garrett has already spent years risking his life clearing explosives littering Ukraine’s battlefields.

Since 2014, the British bomb disposal expert has scoured the war-ravaged country defusing unexploded ordnance.

Artillery rounds, helicopter rockets, small arms ammunition, booby traps and tank shells are among the deadly munitions the volunteer has made safe.

But he is under no illusions as to the scale of the clear-up operation still required in the world’s most heavily mined country.

The volunteers have found makeshift bombs stuffed into vapes, washing machines and laptops with Mr Garrett accusing Vladimir Putin’s troops of “terrorist, almost Isis tactics”.

“It’s a mess. It’s going to take 100-plus years. Some of these places, they’re not going to be able to be done mechanically. It’s going to have to be done by hand,” he told The i Paper.

“You’ve got anti-tank mines, you’ve got anti-personnel mines, you’ve got cluster munitions, you’ve got scatterable landmines that are fired using artillery or rockets.

“There’s just the sheer volume of unexploded ordnance and landmines in the ground and the complexity of it.”

It also remains to be seen how, if a ceasefire deal agreed, peacekeepers could effectively operate in a country so strewn with mines.

Sir Keir Starmer has hinted ceasefire plans have moved into an operational phase with planners meeting earlier this month with options of a 30,000-strong international force being deployed to Ukraine.

It is estimated up to two million mines have been planted across 40 per cent of Ukraine since Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022 and the World Bank has suggested demining the country could cost $37.4bn (£29.6bn).

But Mr Garrett, 40, a former tree surgeon from the Isle of Man, fears as many as 10 million may have been laid.

He compares Ukraine to Vietnam and Cambodia, where decades after war ended, landmines are still being cleared.

The 40-year-old now works with non-governmental organisation Prevail, which, as well as clearing explosives, trains combat engineers and bomb disposal technicians, with around 3,000 taught by the Manxman.

The group of around 10, which relies on donations, also uses an ambulance to evacuate wounded civilians and soldiers to hospitals after Russian attacks, with 61 casualties extracted over a recent nine-day period.

In 2022, Mr Garrett helped clear around 50 tonnes of explosives from areas like Irpin and Bucha, the sites of Russian atrocities against civilians, and Hostomel, the airport near Kyiv, where Ukrainian forces repelled Moscow’s paratroopers in a fierce battle.

Booby traps, however, are a constant hazard left by retreating Russians as front lines shift.

He described the current state of former front lines as a “mess” with a range of different landmines given to Ukraine as well as Russian explosives strewn across the landscape.

“We’re seeing American mines, we’re seeing French mines, we’re seeing Spanish mines,” he said.

“In some areas, because there’s been so much heavy fighting, there’s so much metal in the ground – fragmentation bullets, unexploded ordnance, blown-up vehicles – you can’t even use a metal detector.

“It’s fingertip by fingertip.”

Nate Vance, cousin of US Vice President JD Vance, was among the volunteers in his ordnance disposal team before the American joined Ukraine’s military to fight.

Garrett’s work alongside Ukraine’s military has seen the British national sentenced in absentia to 14 years in a penal colony by a kangaroo court in Russian-controlled Donetsk, a punishment he shrugged off.

“I don’t really plan on visiting the DNR [the so-called Donetsk People’s Republic] anytime soon anyway, and I’ve certainly got no holiday plans to Russia,” he said.

“I’m never going to go to Belarus, or any other country that’s backing up bloody rapists and murderers coming into this country, So I don’t really think I’ve got a problem.”

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With the war now in its fourth year, Russian devices have also become more sophisticated, with some explosives programmed on computers.

“Unless you’re the one that’s actually programmed it you don’t know exactly how this device will function,” Mr Garrett said.

“And because of technology getting better, you can end up with devices that are not much larger than a matchbox.

“You’re starting to find booby traps and IEDs [improvised explosive devices] and in much smaller containers and packets.”

Until 2023, he worked full-time on the front line supporting the Ukrainian military.

But the increased threat from drone attacks means the Prevail team now operates no closer than 6km from the battlefield, with 80 per cent of his efforts now focused on training.

Finances are a problem, too, with the group unable to afford the $35,000 (£27,000) needed for a full-protection bomb suit.

“For the cost of two-and-a-half of those suits, we had to run our entire organisation last year because that’s all the money that we had,” he said.

“So now we’re just in normal body armour and whatever protective gear we need for that job.”

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At the end of Joe Biden’s administration, the US agreed to send Ukraine anti-personnel mines to help stem Putin’s advances, with Western allies bordering Russia now preparing to withdraw from a key international treaty that bans them.

Earlier this month, Poland, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia proposed exiting the Ottawa Convention banning anti-personnel landmines as military threats to Nato member states bordering Russia and Belarus have “significantly increased”.

And while Mr Garrett is against their use, he understands why Ukraine uses the mines to try and limit Russian advances.

“It’s just slightly frustrating at times. We’re just talking such high numbers here now,” he added.

“Millions and millions and millions of items of munitions.”

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