Four years after Russia's invasion, Ukraine faces another crisis that will outlast the war itself: millions of landmines scattered across a thousand-kilometer front line, buried in some of the world's best farmland.
However, a remarkable transformation is underway. The HALO Trust, the world's largest landmine clearance organization, has cleared over 36,000 explosives and returned 20 million square meters of land to Ukrainian families, and they're doing it faster and safer than ever before, thanks to technology that's revolutionizing humanitarian work worldwide.
A Crisis Unlike Any Other
Major General James Cowan, HALO Trust's CEO and former British Army commander, has seen landmine crises across the globe from Cambodia to Angola. But Ukraine is different.
"Nothing on the scale of Ukraine," Cowan says. "The Russians laid literally millions of landmines along that front. It's on all the best farmland. You can't farm it, you can't access minerals, it's really critical to the Ukrainian economy to clear these areas as quickly as possible."
It costs about a dollar to plant a landmine and a thousand dollars to remove it. Worldwide, there are an estimated 5 billion square meters of contaminated land affecting 100 million people. At traditional speeds, clearing would take generations, if it weren’t for modern innovation.
From Paper to Pixels
Just ten years ago, landmine clearance teams worked with stacks of paper forms to help locate and map dangerous mine zones. Data would pile up at field sites for weeks, then get transported to regional offices for manual entry into databases. By the time information reached decision-makers, it was often months old and riddled with errors.
"We had no idea really how up to date any one data stream was," recalls Olivier Cottray, who spent 20 years in humanitarian mine action before joining mapping technology company Esri.
Today, teams use smartphones and tablets to record findings instantly. Drop-down menus and built-in checks minimize mistakes. What once took weeks now happens in a day.
"Now it's all digitally recorded from the field all the way back up to the national authority," explains Ryan Lanclos, Esri's Director of National Government Solutions. "It's about trust and transparency."
How It Actually Works
The modern approach combines multiple technologies into a systematic process:
First, satellite images and drone footage scan vast areas daily, looking for signs of disturbance or suspicious patterns. Artificial intelligence helps analyze this imagery, rapidly identifying where contamination from land mines might exist.
Next, ground teams use sensors and specialized equipment to confirm the locations and narrow down the search zones. Mapping software overlays these danger zones with locations of schools, hospitals, and population centers, helping prioritize which areas to clear first ensuring maximum impact for communities.
Finally, HALO Trust's 1,600 staff members - the largest workforce of any clearance organization in the country - use a combination of traditional manual techniques and new machines like remote-controlled robots to safely remove the mines.
All this information feeds into a central database that every organization working in Ukraine can access, creating what Lanclos calls a "common operating picture" that prevents wasted effort and ensures coordination.
Racing Against Time
HALO Trust's ambition is bold: triple the speed of clearance.
"We want to marry drone technology and satellite imagery with artificial intelligence to scan huge areas and quickly assess where the landmines are," Cowan explains. The organization is also developing magnetic resonance sensors for more precise detection and working toward fully autonomous clearance vehicles with no human operator required.
The AI piece is particularly promising but requires caution. "The mine action community is very cautious because mistakes are deadly," Cottray notes. "It only adopts new technology once it's really robust and mature."
Beyond Battlefields
The impact reaches far beyond Ukraine. HALO Trust operates in 30 countries with 10,000 staff members, and the technologies proven in Ukrainian fields are already being adapted for urban environments like Syria and Gaza.
There's even an unexpected environmental benefit in Central and Southern Africa. Mine clearance is restoring wildlife migration corridors, connecting conservation with humanitarian work.
"Mine action is an enabler," Cottray says. "It's the first step before anything else can happen - before humanitarian organizations can access areas, before communities can return, before economies can rebuild."
What Comes Next
The war's end will determine when HALO Trust can access Russian-controlled areas. But the technological work continues now, building the foundation for faster clearance when peace comes.
For Cowan, the mission is personal and practical. Since founding in Afghanistan in 1988, HALO Trust has maintained a simple goal: save lives and restore livelihoods.
In Ukraine, that means 20 million square meters of land where families can farm again, where children can play safely, and where communities can rebuild. It means 36,000 explosives that will never claim another victim.
As the fourth anniversary of the invasion passes, it means hope that the deadly legacy of this war won't have to last for generations thanks to drones, data, and human resilience and determination.
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