Despite severe injuries, Lviv Oblast police bomb technicians – police lieutenant colonel Andriy Ilkiv and police lieutenant colonel Taras Salo – dream of demining Ukrainian cities again
They are one of those who, since the beginning of the war, demined dozens of kilometers of land won from the enemy. The guys say that the territory there is so full of mines that two trucks were collected and taken to the training ground in a day.
The enemy left behind a huge “inheritance” of deadly junk – anti-personnel and anti-tank mines, unexploded shells, numerous “stretch marks” in forest plantations.
“Kharkivshchyna was under occupation for almost a year, and the enemy understood that sooner or later he would be pushed out of there, so he mined everything en masse. However, not only against the military – we found landmines in private estates, on the outskirts, in the fields, i.e., where they purposefully left them for the civilian population. The occupiers hid “surprises” under chairs, under laptops, in toys… There is even a case when mines were found in the refrigerator,” Taras recalls.
In addition, the guys often had to deal with the so-called trap mines – when the occupiers recycled factory ammunition to cause maximum damage to the sappers themselves during decontamination.
The boys remember that day reluctantly. While demining the Kharkiv region, Andriy and Taras were blown up by enemy anti-personnel mines.
“In our work, you can’t relax for a moment… We had almost finished demining and were about to go to the base, when Andriy saw another mine – it was covered with earth after the explosions,” Taras recalls. – They decided to fence it off with flags so that no one stepped on it, but when Andriy was fencing off the place, he took a step back and came across another mine. There was an explosion. It all happened in front of my eyes, some 20 meters away. The first thing I thought about was his four children…”
“In a moment, my partners, Taras and Roman, ran up to me and pulled me out. However, during the evacuation, Taras was blown up by another mine,” says Andriy.
You can only imagine the density of mining – at least three mines on two square meters!
“It happened a year ago, but I remember that day like it was yesterday,” says Andriy. “The first thought was about children.”
“After that incident, I began to value life more,” Taras admits. – One moment – and a person can die. And at home, your beloved, children, parents are waiting for you.”
For 17 of his 37 years, Andrii Ilkiv has been dealing with the disposal of explosives. He has four children. Since 2014, the policeman has been on duty in Kupyansk, Kharkiv Region, and Severodonetsk, Luhansk Region, and at the beginning of the full-scale invasion of the Russian Federation, together with his colleagues, he demined Irpin, Bucha, and Gostomil.
Taras has a wife and two children. He says that his family accepts his choice with understanding. In addition, the wife is the daughter of a military man, so she knows exactly what official duties are.
Both law enforcement officers were awarded the Order “For Courage” of the third degree.
After the explosion, both Andriy and Taras had to have their left legs amputated. However, this did not stop the boys – they ask to go east again, “to clear all the mines as soon as possible.”
“Of course, we have a certain fear, because every exit can be the last. But you pull yourself together, go and do your work so that peaceful people return to their homes as soon as possible, so that life returns to the emptied cities and villages, so that people can safely walk around their neighborhoods, towns, and parks. Today, unfortunately, it is impossible to go out into one’s own yard and be sure that there are no mines there,” says Taras.
“We will win, that’s for sure. But demining work, unfortunately, is still years away,” the police say.
The only thing that bomb technicians could not get used to over the years of their work is that people still die on mines.