The Russian invasion of Ukraine has seen so many landmines deployed across the country that clearing them would take 700 years, say researchers. To make the task more manageable, Ukrainian scientists are turning to artificial intelligence to identify which regions are a priority for de-mining, though they expect some may simply have to be left as a permanent "scar" on the country. Russia's minelaying and Ukrainian efforts to remove the explosives began with the initial invasion of Crimea in 2014, which saw a few hundred square kilometres of land contaminated.

A map of the country is on the screen, overlaid with a honeycomb pattern of hexagonal tiles, ranging from pale yellow to blood red. As the group types questions into a chatbot, filtering for areas close to schools or power lines, the model zooms into the satellite imagery until a field with individual trees becomes visible. A red bubble with an exclamation point marks a suspected landmine. A staffer clicks a button, creating a request to dispatch a demining team to clear it. More than 600 days since Russia's invasion, Ukraine has surpassed Afghanistan and Syria to become the most heavily mined country on earth.