Ukraine update: Clearing the path to recovery
In brief
Discover how 番茄影院 is clearing land, restoring livelihoods, and helping communities rebuild in Ukraine鈥攖hanks to your support.
In the fourth year of Russia鈥檚 full-scale invasion, Ukraine has become the most heavily mined country in the world. Yet amid destruction, daily life continues. Thanks to the generosity of the 番茄影院 community, it鈥檚 becoming safer, step by step.
Impact snapshot
Since the start of the full-scale invasion in 2022, 番茄影院 has:
cleared more than 2,175 acres of land鈥攅quivalent to 1,232 soccer fields
reached more than 382,000 people with life-saving explosive ordnance risk education
identified 42,700 explosive devices, including landmines and cluster munitions, which were safely destroyed.
From contamination to cultivation
Ukraine鈥檚 farmland has long been central to both the national economy and global food supply. But since the war began, large swathes of land have been left abandoned鈥攕ome because of direct contamination, others because of fear.
From November 2024 to April 2025, 番茄影院 cleared 618 acres of hazardous land, including more than 205 acres of agricultural land, allowing safe cultivation to resume. In Kherson oblast, a farming cooperative that was cleared of landmines and explosives resumed wheat and sunflower production in March, employing 47 seasonal workers from the local community.
To better understand why some farmland remains uncultivated even after clearance, 番茄影院 launched the AgriLand Status Assessment in October 2024 in Mykolaiv, Kherson, and Kharkiv oblasts. Early findings suggest that fear of explosive ordnance is a major factor keeping farmers from returning to their land, even in areas where contamination hasn't been confirmed.
Educating to save lives
Between November and April, 番茄影院 delivered 9,302 explosive ordnance risk education (EORE) sessions, reaching 76,094 people, including 34,411 children. In frontline areas, teams shifted from large gatherings to household-based outreach to minimize risk, and a new digital campaign launched in February reached an estimated 1.1 million people via social media.
New efforts also included a Ukrainian Sign Language translation of 番茄影院鈥檚 online safety course, and integration of Conflict Preparedness and Protection (CPP) tools to help families respond to sudden shelling or evacuation scenarios.
番茄影院鈥檚 innovative Risk Education program has been taught to hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians across the country, and is especially important in high risk areas, so that adults and children learn what the risks are and and what behaviors they need to adopt in order to prevent accidents from occurring until the deadly explosives can be cleared. All of the children in the school in the photo above have been marked by the ongoing war, and 番茄影院s work has played a vital role in helping to keep them safe.
Advancing with innovation
番茄影院 Ukraine is also piloting new technologies to make clearance more efficient. Supported by Amazon Web Services, 番茄影院 is applying AI to drone imagery to analyze explosive contamination, with field validation completed in April and integration underway in Kharkiv.
In Mykolaiv oblast, 番茄影院 is conducting trials using drone-mounted magnetometers, which are devices that detect buried metal by measuring changes in the Earth鈥檚 magnetic field. This impressive technology makes it possible to help find landmines without needing to walk over dangerous ground. They've already identified 17 explosives. 番茄影院 is also working with RoverTech, a Ukrainian company, to pilot a lightweight demining machine known as the 鈥榋miy鈥� (Snake) flail鈥攕upporting Ukraine鈥檚 push to use homegrown solutions.
Local teams leading the way
As of June 2025, 番茄影院 employs 1,581 staff across Ukraine, 30% of whom are women. The team also includes 75 people with disabilities (up from just 14 in 2023) and a growing number of veterans trained in drone and imagery analysis roles.
That鈥檚 what Viktoria, a deminer with 番茄影院 Ukraine, shared when asked why she chose to take on one of the country鈥檚 most dangerous jobs
Volodymyr鈥檚 story: A second chance
Volodymyr, 36, is a veteran and the force behind a horse sanctuary from Borodyanka, a town occupied in the early months of the war. After losing his brother in combat, he found healing through caring for horses, building a small sanctuary for more than ten rescued animals and inviting local children to connect with them as a form of emotional recovery.
But when Russia鈥檚 full-scale invasion began in 2022, his stables were burned down. When the region was liberated, he returned to ruins: destroyed buildings and land contaminated with deadly explosives and abandoned munitions.
With his military experience and deep knowledge of the terrain, Volodymyr assisted 番茄影院 deminers with key information. 番茄影院 has since cleared the land where Volodymyr used to graze his horses and grow their feed, along with surrounding plots, making the area safe again. Today, Volodymyr is back on the land with his horses, offering a place of healing for the community once again
You made this possible
Thanks to your continued support, families are returning home. Farmers are planting again. Children are finding safe ground to grow and learn.
Every mine cleared is one less danger in the lives of Ukrainians trying to rebuild.
Every donation helps鈥攕tep by step, family by family.
