HBS Alumni Keeping Families Safe from Landmines

Healing for a Family

Tragedy has struck Volodymyr and his wife, Yuliia, many times since the war escalated. In March 2022, their 13-year-old daughter, Diana, was killed when cluster munitions hit their home. Their 10-year-old son, Sasha, was also injured. His foot was hit with shrapnel, and he suffered a concussion.  

In March 2024, the family went back home for the first time since their daughter’s death. One morning, Volodymyr and Yuliia went fishing. Walking toward the river, Volodymyr kicked something he thought was a stone. It was a landmine.

“I was in shock,” he says. “I didn’t understand what was happening. My vision got foggy, and three times, I tried to stand up but fell back down.”

Yuliia also sustained injuries – she still has shrapnel in multiple parts of her body – but ran nearly a kilometer to get help. Volodymyr’s right leg was amputated from the knee down. Since shrapnel hit a central artery in his arm, he has lost use of three of his fingers.

“The hardest part for me is not being able to work,” he says. Now, between his injuries and the general lack of work due to the war, the family is trying hard to stay afloat.

Their other major concern is safety. “The whole village is mined,” says Yuliia. “We don’t feel safe going to the forest… we can’t even go to the cemetery, to our parents’ graves.”

A Mother's Wish

When fighting erupted in Ukraine, Svitlana – a mother of nine, pregnant with her tenth – and her husband believed their family would be safer in Karierne village in the Kherson region. They had no way of predicting that in fact, the village would be in the direct line of fire between Ukrainian and Russian positions.

The family stayed in Karierne for three months before eventually fleeing to Germany. “We left with almost nothing,” says Svitlana. “We thought it would be for just a short time. But the situation only got worse. The village was constantly being hit with cluster munitions.” 

The family stayed in Germany for over a year, returning to Karierne in July 2023. Today, the village is no longer under occupation, but some of the nearby villages still are. Drones constantly fly overhead. Cluster munitions and other dangerous explosives linger just underfoot.

Svitlana worries about the remains of explosives around the village. Her children want to explore the forest and river, but she and her husband don’t allow them. Several mine accidents have occurred all along the rivershore.

“I want them to play in the river like we did when we were kids, to run in the fields like we did,” says Svitlana. “I hope that one day we will feel safe enough to let them have this. I know it will not be fast, but I hope that one day, it will happen.”

Hope to Rebuild and Live

35-year-old Hennadii lost his leg in a mine accident in 2023, just three weeks after moving back home after the Russian occupation of his village in Kherson region. Hennadii had gone down to the Inhulets River with his friend to go fishing. After a successful fishing day, they were headed back along a well-trodden footpath when Hennadii stepped on a mine.

While his friend ran for help, Hennadii made a tourniquet out of his belt. “I think I was in shock,” he says, “but even so, I had a feeling that I would lose my leg.” Military medics arrived on the scene quickly, having heard the explosion, and since there was a threat of further mines, they carried him by foot for 700 meters until they reached the main road. Hennadii’s leg was amputated below the knee.

As soon as Hennadii returned home from the hospital, he was visited by a HALO Trust survey team, who gathered all the information they could about the accident.

“I know demining is very hard, very detailed work,” says Hennadii. “I think their work is very important, and it will take years to complete it.”

In the meantime, he says, people are scared to move around the village. They no longer forage in the forest. After his accident, and others that occurred along the river, they no longer fish.