Ukraine farmer blows up mines with remote-controlled armoured tractor so he can plant crops

Remote controlled demining machine made of tractor and armoured plates from destroyed Russian military vehicles is seen in a field near the village of Hrakove
REUTERS

A Ukrainian farmer has armour plated a remote-controlled tractor to blow up mines so he can get on with sowing seeds on his land in the spring.

Oleksandr Kryvtsov has kitted out his tractor with protective panels stripped from Russian tanks.

After Russian forces were driven back from parts of eastern Ukraine by a Ukrainian counter-offensive last year, mines remained in many fields.

The explosives make it perilous for farmers to sow grain for the next harvest.

Fields around the village of Hrakove are no exception.

Mr 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.

Worker uses a remote control to operate a demining machine made of tractor and armoured plates from destroyed Russian military vehicles in a field near the village of Hrakove
A worker uses a remote control to operate the demining machine
REUTERS

Using 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 a digger's bucket 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," he explained.

"We ran over an anti-tank mine. The protection got blown out (but) the tractor is safe," he added.

"Everyone's alive and safe. The equipment was restored and repaired."

Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said last week about 30 per cent of Ukrainian territory had been mined by Russians and that the government was focused on de-mining agricultural land as quickly as possible.

"We have no time to demine the fields. The amount of work is enormous," said Serhii Dudak, head of a demining unit overseeing the tractor's work.

"It would take years to demine this particular field by hand and to guarantee that there are no mines here."

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in