Crimea’s past catches up with its present
Autonomous Republic of Crimea, Ukraine, September 2009. The crowds of tourists were thinning, the weather was changing from sub-tropical to mild-Mediterranean and the clear waters were still warm enough to dip into – an ideal time for an off-season holiday off the beaten path. But, for the two experts from Denmark and their counterparts from the United States, basking in the autumnal sun had to take the back seat for now. They had come to Crimea for a sole purpose: to find out how its nearly 2 million residents could best be helped by the OSCE to protect themselves from the dangerous remnants of the region’s past.
As the visitors drove along the peaceful Black Sea coast set against ragged limestone cliffs, they found it hard to imagine that the peninsula had served as the theatre for an endless wave of invaders through the centuries. Skiffs and Sarmats, Greeks and Genoans, and Khazars and Kipchaks were just some of the adventurers who had made their way to these shores, contributing to Crimea’s richly layered ancient heritage and exotic attractions.
However, the legacy left by modern warfare was bound to be vastly different. In the Crimean peninsula, vast swathes of fields, woods and shorelines that are contaminated with explosive remnants of war (ERW) speak volumes about the bloody and intense fighting that took place in Ukraine’s territory during World War II.
“Explosive remnants of war” sums it up succinctly. A term introduced by the humanitarian community, it refers to a whole range of remaining unexploded ordnance such as bombs, rockets, hand grenades and artillery shells that pose a grave threat to the population and the environment long after armed hostilities are over.
“Between 1997 and 2008, some 70 accidental explosions in Crimea killed 35 people and maimed or injured 67 others, including 21 children,” said Maj.-Gen. Vasyliy Kvashuk, who is at the forefront of civil defence efforts in Ukraine’s Ministry for Emergency Situations. Most of these had taken place in and around Kerch and Sevastopol and involved curiosity seekers as well as “black diggers” – people not authorized to handle explosive remnants of war.
“Since 2001, we have retrieved and destroyed more than 52,000 ERW items,” he said, “but the problem is simply too overwhelming for us to deal with on our own, especially because accidental explosions in the recent past have made the terrain in the ammunition sites even more challenging. If the OSCE is able to provide us with the latest machinery, on-hands training, personal protective gear and ordnance detection equipment, our ability to locate and retrieve these dangerous items safely and efficiently will improve dramatically.”
Maj.-Gen. Kvashuk’s no-nonsense briefing served to remind the experts how crucial it was for them to obtain an accurate picture of Ukraine’s ERW situation and to identify the Ministry’s precise needs under an OSCE project. Drawn up jointly by the Ministry and the OSCE’s Forum for Security Co-operation, the project focuses on the country’s most heavily contaminated areas, all former sites of World War II and Soviet ammunition storage facilities: Bila Tserkva, near Kyiv, and the port cities of Kerch and Sevastopol.
Kerch
From the highest vantage point of the once-thriving fishing port of Kerch, the experts took in the sweeping panorama and tried to fathom the impact of the vicious exchange of aerial bombardments and heavy artillery and mortar fire during World War II.
“Just think: Between 1941 and 1944, Kerch changed hands four times, claiming thousands of victims on both sides,” said Alexander Savelyev, who is responsible for political-military and environmental activities in the office of the OSCE Project Co-ordinator in Ukraine. “Is it any wonder that the place is still heavily littered with unexploded ordnance? By the end of the war, the city’s population had dwindled from 70,000 to 6,500.”
Steeped in multilayered military history, the Kerch fortress is a sprawling complex of buildings partly concealed underground and interconnected by tunnels. About 150 structures – out of an original 300 that could hold up to 9,000 personnel – blend with undulating low hills overlooking the Black Sea. Most recently used by the Soviets as an ammunitions warehouse, the bunkers, magazines and garrisons were originally built by Russian Emperor Alexander II following the Crimean War of 1854-1855 to make it easier for him to control the Kerch Strait and the Sea of Azov.
“After years of being closed to the public, the 400-hectare grounds are slowly and steadily becoming a tourist magnet and a popular recreational oasis,” said a local guide. “However, the city cannot develop the site and make it fully accessible until the authorities manage to extricate an estimated 2,000 tonnes of unexploded ordnance still remaining. Only 30 per cent of the area has been cleared so far.”
In one of the collapsed depots, the Ukrainians drew the experts’ attention to several 152- mm navy grenades that appeared as if they had been freshly dug up from just below ground surface. Once opened, rusting metal ammunition containers that had been half-buried in the rubble revealed bullets that were in relatively good condition. “After more than 60 years, the danger is that the explosives can become unstable and detonate,” said Mr. Savelyev.
“Every elementary and high school in Kerch is required to have a special course teaching students how to identify and avoid explosive remnants of war and how to go about reporting any suspicious-looking objects found in the ground. But boys will be boys and accidents happen all the time,” said Kerch Deputy Mayor Aleksey Ivanovich Milovanov.
“Even if they hear regular reports of casualties, and even if they can’t figure out where the fuse of a particular ammunition is, ‘black diggers’ – which include kids, teenagers and adults – lose any sense of fear or danger after a while. They can even remove a 1,000-kilo aviation bomb from a site and sell it for metal!”
Sevastopol
After a four-hour drive the following day, another military curiosity awaited the group. In the town of Inkerman, five kilometres east of Sevastopol, eight massive entrances on the side of the MacKenzie Mountains, came into view. These were the gateway to the Inkerman Caves, which had served as the ammunition warehouse of the Black Sea Fleet until an explosion during World War II caused some of the caves to collapse, blocking the labyrinth of corridors and storage galleries.
To gain access to the caves, the Ministry for Emergency Situations constructed vertical shafts a few years ago. Displaying the same spirit of openness and transparency as in an earlier joint project with the OSCE in an ammunition depot near Novobohdanivka in eastern Ukraine, Ministry officials invited the experts to make their way down the shaft to see the pace of clearance operations for themselves.
“At the bottom of the ladder, 30 metres deep, we reached an area of about 100 square metres. This was the cleared space so far in this particular cave,” said Gary Wraalstad of the Humanitarian Mine Action Programme, U.S. European Command, describing the underground experience. “We saw that the Ukrainians had had to manually construct pillars five metres high to support the cave roof. Massive lime stones and rubble had to be further broken up inside the cave and removed via the shaft. Any ammunition that was found also had to be taken up the same way. And equipment and construction material had to be transported up and down the shaft, which was very time-consuming.”
Ukrainian officials were well aware that the operations were far from ideal. “So far out of an estimated 9,000 tonnes before the explosion, 3,000 tonnes of explosive remnants of war – ranging from artillery shells to aerial bombs – are still stored in the caves,” Maj.-Gen. Kvashuk said. “We have been able to remove only 75 tonnes of ammunition. At the pace we’re going, if we don’t manage to obtain outside assistance, it could take 20 years to complete the job.”
A city official called the experts’ attention to the several small cave openings through which children could easily wriggle. “If any of the ammunition inside the caves explodes and self-ignites, it could have a domino effect and lead to more detonations,” he warned. “The consequences could prove fatal: the caves are right next to residential and commercial buildings, a railroad track and a major highway connecting Inkerman with Sevastopol.”
In Kerch and Sevastopol, as well as on an earlier OSCE experts’ visit to Bila Tserkva, near Kyiv, local officials could not stress enough that while their key concern was obviously people’s safety and security, the sheer abundance of explosive remnants of war was also a major stumbling block to socio-economic development and risked polluting water supplies and agricultural lands. “The longer it takes to bring about favourable living conditions, the more social tensions and unease build up,” said one.
The Danish and U.S. Governments, through their delegations to the OSCE, have been the first to respond to Ukraine’s request for assistance in October 2007. On a visit to Kyiv in October 2009, Denmark’s Deputy Permanent Secretary of State for Defence, Kristian Fischer, announced a contribution of €50,000 to the FSC’s special fund. The amount has been earmarked for personal protection gear such as Kevlar helmets and flak jackets for clearance personnel, ferrous locators that are capable of detecting metal buried deep into the ground and special detonation equipment. Training for explosive ordnance disposal teams is also part of the assistance package.
Following suit, the United States has also announced that it will contribute about $110,000 worth of personal protection equipment and ferrous locators and provide disposal teams with specialized on-the-spot training in operating the equipment.
The news was met with a great deal of relief in Bila Tserkva, Kerch and Inkerman. “Project activities can now get under way in the spring, a season of renewed hope when Crimea’s flora and fauna are in full display,” said Crimea’s Deputy Prime Minister Azis R. Abdulayev. “We can hardly wait for the day when we can pronounce ourselves free of all explosive remnants of war so that the Crimean peninsula can finally follow its dream of being the recreational pearl of Ukraine.”
“I’m fully aware that support for the project is a joint effort, and I hope other participating States demonstrate their interest too,” said Mr. Fischer in Kyiv. “Once Ukraine completes this project, people’s lives will improve and new opportunities will open up in the affected areas.”
Lt. Col. Niels Poul Petersen, Military Adviser at the Mission of Denmark to the OSCE, is the FSC Co-ordinator for projects dealing with stockpiles of conventional ammunition. Maria Brandstetter is a CSBM Officer in the FSC Support Section of the OSCE Secretariat’s Conflict Prevention Centre.