Where Mines Once Hid, Sunflowers Now Grow: Woman Reclaiming Ukrainian Fields

Antonina Kulhava, a 32-year-old Ukrainian woman, is helping clear mines and other explosives left behind by the war in Ukraine.Some of the fields cleared by her team are now being used by farmers again, with sunflowers growing where mines were once found, she told The Independent."The fields where we previously worked are being cultivated by farmers, and there are a field of sunflowers where the mines were," Kulhava said, who works with the Mines Advisory Group (MAG)."It's nothing like I've done before. It helps people in Ukraine because the more we clean our lands, the more people will come back to their homes, to their lands, and also just to make Ukraine safer," she said."It's an interesting and challenging job," she said.Photo Credit: MAG (Mines Advisory Group)Kulhava said she had never worked in mine clearance before. She previously worked in finance and later became a pastry chef.