On May 31, 2023, the International Conference “The impact of anti-personnel mines – civilian casualties of the minefields” was held in Berlin. Co-organizers: Charitable Fund “Kharkiv with you” and our German partners Altner & Nemirovski GbR. The event was supported by the Department of Civil Protection of the Kharkiv Regional State Administration.

As part of this event, we held an exhibition and a podium discussion on the topic “Russian anti-personnel mines in Ukraine and Karabakh”.

The main goal of the Forum is to draw the attention of German political circles, as well as the general public of European countries, to such problems as:

• the use of anti-personnel mines of indiscriminate action by the Russian aggressors, which is a violation of international humanitarian law;
• consequences of this use;
• assessment of the possibilities of providing technical assistance to accelerate the demining of territories;
• medical aid to injured civilians.

The main event of the event was a podium discussion with representatives of political and industrial circles, as well as with doctors and NGO representatives.

The following participated in the discussion:

• Dr. Sven Merdian, chief physician of Berlin’s Charité clinic;
• Dr. Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann, Member of the Bundestag (Free Democratic Party);
• Olena Sherzhukova – co-founder of BF “Kharkiv with you”, adviser to the Head of the Permanent Delegation of Ukraine in the PACE;
• Oleksandr Goncharov – head of the Kharkiv Oblast demining program, which was implemented by the Charitable Foundation “Kharkiv with you”;
• Ivan Sokol – director of the Department of Civil Protection of the Kharkiv Regional Administration;
• representative of the Ottobock company – the world’s leading manufacturer of prostheses

Also, a large family under the care of our Foundation took part in the work of the Forum. Father Yevhen and son Bohdan, 7 years old, were injured by an uncontrolled landmine explosion while visiting their grandmother in Vovchansk.

Photo by Jonny Wen

This measure, aimed at drawing the attention of European countries to the problem of mining territories, is very important.

Given that Kharkiv region currently has the largest mined territory – tens of thousands of square kilometers – which primarily affects civilians.

Within the framework of the Mine Safety Forum and during working meetings with foreign partners and donors, the issue of providing equipment for humanitarian demining of territories and assistance in carrying out measures to warn the population about mine safety were discussed.