Image Library

In Trudivske village, Olena runs a library in the hope that young villagers will spend more time reading and less time drinking alcohol and vandalising property.

To keep busy and to relieve stress, she makes rag dolls.

The stresses, she says, are many. Recently, a man driving a tractor was killed after the vehicle detonated a landmine.

Landmines put more than two million people at risk every day in eastern Ukraine, according to the UN’s emergency aid coordination body, OCHA.

More than 1,900 people have been killed or injured by landmines since 2014, according to The Halo Trust, an NGO that works to clear landmines.

The mines and other unexploded ordnance also damage the economy. The Halo Trust notes that most mined areas are in forested or agricultural land, restricting timber production, farming, and access to pasture where livestock can graze.