UKRAINE’S first bomb disposal training for women has been funded by Jersey Overseas Aid – and a member of the programme visited the Island this week.
Uliana Yurenko, a Ukrainian national who helps deliver training in the country, appeared on a panel on Thursday alongside Ben Remfrey, an explosive-ordnance disposal expert from the charity Friends of Ukraine Explosive Ordnance Disposal (FoU EOD).
The panel discussion was part of a series of events held in the Island on the country’s Independence Day, which is celebrated on 24 August each year, marking the date when Ukraine declared independence from the Soviet Union.
FoU-EOD and MAT-Kosovo, which has a facility in the Balkan country, started training Ukrainian women after a presidential decree stopping men from leaving the country – which meant they were not able to bring men to their training facilities in Kosovo.
Their first Ukrainian students, nicknamed ‘the Great Eight’, were the first women to be allowed to be involved in bomb disposal in Ukraine, Mr Remfrey said.
Miss Yurenko, head technical translator and interpreter at MAT Kosovo, was involved in translating course materials.
She and Mr Remfrey, a Guernseyman, said that the women they train tend to be safer and more aware of the bigger picture.
‘That makes them better EOD operators,’ Mr Remfrey said.
Miss Yurenko said: ‘Women generally tend to see a general picture, they start asking: “Is there a school around? Is there a kindergarten around? Is there a hospital around?”
The centre’s students come from a variety of organisations – including the HALO Trust, the Ukrainian National Guard, and the Swiss Demining Federation, with around 200 students from Ukraine coming through the school.
They include former schoolteachers, midwives, and even a surf instructor who had been working in Sri Lanka before the war.
Miss Yurenko said: ‘Within that training, they get this insight into the new approaches towards the disposals.
‘When you see that something new that you offered to the trainees is actually helping them in their day-to-day professional life, that is very inspiring.’
Mr Remfrey said: ‘We try and engender and we try and force home: don’t do anything you’re unfamiliar with.
‘What we also say in bomb disposal around the world: there’s no experts… anybody that calls himself an expert, steer well clear of them. We’re all learning something new every day.’
A significantly high number of bombs – around 60% – fired onto Ukraine have failed to detonate, due to poor manufacturing and lengthy storage time.
Mr Remfrey said: ‘It means they’re even more dangerous.’
Mr Remfrey explained: ‘What’s very noticeable for me in my visits in Ukraine is everybody is so dedicated. Defeat is not an option.’
‘Definitely,’ Miss Yurenko agreed.
