- With medical report Harris seeks to play health card against Trump
- China-EU EV tariff talks in Brussels end with 'major differences': Beijing
- Buried Nazi past haunts Athens on liberation anniversary
- Harris to release medical report confirming fitness for presidency: campaign
- Nobel prize a timely reminder, Hiroshima locals say
- China offers $325 bn in fiscal stimulus for ailing economy
- Small Quebec company dominates one part of NHL hockey: jerseys
- Boeing to cut 10% of workforce as it sees big Q3 loss
- Want to film in Paris? No sexism allowed
- US, European markets rise as investors weigh rates, earnings
- In Colombia, children trade plastic waste for school supplies
- JPMorgan Chase profits top estimates, bank sees 'resilient' US economy
- Little progress at key meet ahead of COP29 climate summit
- 'Party atmosphere': Skygazers treated to another aurora show
- Kyrgyzstan opens rare probe into glacier destruction
- European Mediterranean states discuss Middle East, migration
- Thunberg leads pro-Palestinian, climate protest in Milan
- Stock markets diverge before China weekend briefing
- EU questions shopping app Temu over illegal products risk
- Han Kang's books sell out in South Korea after Nobel win
- Shanghai markets sink ahead of briefing on mixed day for Asia
- Investors, analysts eye bigger China stimulus at Saturday briefing
- Musk unveils robotaxi, pledges it 'before 2027'
- At least 11 dead in Florida but Hurricane Milton not as bad as feared
- Asian markets mixed after Wall St drop, Shanghai dips before briefing
- Automaker Stellantis says CEO will retire in 2026
- Musk's promised robotaxi unveil delayed
- On US coast, wind power foes embrace 'Save the Whales' argument
- At least 10 dead in Florida after Hurricane Milton spawns tornadoes
- Internet Archive reels from 'catastrophic' cyberattack, data breach
- Wall Street stocks retreat from records on US inflation data
- Israel strikes central Beirut, killing 22
- Solar storm could impact US hurricane recovery efforts: agency
- Delta eyes Election Day travel pullback as profits climb
- Florida battered by hurricane, floods but spared 'worst-case scenario'
- UK's William and Kate in first joint public engagement since cancer treatment
- Over 200 women in legal talks with Harrods over Fayed abuse claims
- A very stiff breeze: BBC says sorry for 20,000 kph wind forecast
- Musk finally unveiling his long-promised robotaxi
- London's Frieze art fair goes potty for ceramics
- US, Europe stocks fall on US inflation data
- US consumer inflation eases to 2.4% in September
- Hurricane Milton tornadoes kill four in Florida amid rescue efforts
- South Korea's Han Kang wins literature Nobel
- Ikea posts fall in annual sales after lowering prices
- Stock markets diverge, oil gains after China rebounds
- World can't 'waste time' trading climate change blame: COP29 hosts
- South Korean same-sex couples make push for marriage equality
- Mumbai declares day of mourning for Indian industrialist Ratan Tata
- 7-Eleven owner restructures to fight takeover
Ukraine farmer risks life clearing shells from fields
His fields peppered with Russian shells, Ukrainian farmer Vitaliy Sydor has resorted to desperate measures to clear explosives from the land himself so he can plant crops.
"I bought metal detectors and had a bit of a look on the Internet," said Sydor, 28. He had no protective equipment, he admitted, and relies on a friend with army experience.
His village, Novogrygorivka, in Ukraine's southern Mykolaiv region, was within sight of the Russian front line and heavily bombarded from March to November last year until the Russians retreated.
The landscape is littered with splintered trees, shattered houses and burnt-out vehicles.
"Wherever you look there are holes," said Sydor, indicating the shattered outbuildings and machinery.
The house built by his father and grandfather is just a heap of rubble.
With some of Ukraine's best agricultural land, this region is crucial to the harvest, and farmers need to earn money after losing last year's crops.
International demining organisations and military and police sappers are out in force, but the area is vast and some farmers, needing to recoup huge losses, are taking clearance into their own hands.
"You can wait a long time. No one knows when they will come and demine everything," said Sydor, adding that he exchanges information online with other farmers on finding munitions.
An estimated half of Mykolaiv region's agricultural land will go unused this year "due to contamination or fear of contamination", said Jasmine Dann, regional operations manager for The HALO Trust, which is working in the region.
But Sydor's do-it-yourself approach carries "very big risks", she said.
"There is not only the risk that something will be missed but also that the mines might be booby trapped," she warned.
"Other explosives can be very unstable and explode if tampered with."
- 'It was scary' -
Anti-vehicle and -personnel landmines were planted in some areas in the Mykolaiv region, but there is also a huge amount of unexploded ordnance on the surface.
"The fields are all covered in shells, detonated and not yet detonated," Sydor said, digging up shrapnel with his boot.
He and his workers used ropes to test if a shell had exploded, he said.
"Just in case, we take a long rope, lie down and pull the projectile -- if it fires, it fires. If not, then you're lucky."
Most dangerous are the anti-personnel mines, with their plastic casings and fuses, he added.
"Everyone is afraid of the plastic ones, because the metal detector just doesn't pick them up."
On the small farm he runs with his parents, they have already sown around 100 hectares with spring barley.
"Of course it was scary. This was the first field we went over ourselves, demined ourselves," Sydor said, pointing to the green blades.
"There are mines on small parachutes, mines on cables -- we found these in two places, exploded," he added.
"There are huge amounts of pieces of rockets. Sometimes even a tractor cannot pull out a rocket, it's gone so deep into the earth."
Inside the field, there is a very deep hole surrounded with red-and-white flags, where Sydor thinks there may be an unexploded shell.
- 'Slow and methodical' -
The HALO Trust -- which famously had Princess Diana walk through a minefield -- is clearing a large field with a rusty hulk in the centre, near the village of Yevgenivka, an area occupied by the Russians.
A Ukrainian helicopter in March 2022 fired on a truck in the field carrying Russian ammunition.
Explosives including rocket-propelled grenades and hand grenades, flew out over 100 metres in every direction, some exploding, some not.
Two teams slowly walked across the field in formation, swinging detectors and going over every section twice.
This is termed a "battle area clearance task", Dann said.
The land is rented by a large agrifirm, which hopes to plant coriander, flax, millet and sunflowers this year.
"We're like ants. They destroy us and we build everything back," said the firm's director, Vadym Belyk.
The HALO Trust gives a guarantee that after its work, people can use the area freely.
This way is "slow, methodical", said Dann.
"We'll find everything possible."
Ukraine currently does not permit NGOs to use explosives to destroy munitions in situ. That slows down the process, since HALO must call in army help.
Dann acknowledged that the farmers were impatient to sow.
"For us now agricultural land is the number one priority," she said.
"You spoke to the farmer here: he's going to use this land right now."
Sydor said he was happy with his spring barley and hoped to sow sunflowers soon.
"In 10 days or so you won't be able to see the earth, it will be covered in green."
H.Müller--CPN