Domestic balance
Finding contamination from the air
The slowest part of demining is deciding where to look. Aerial imagery and pattern analysis are changing that, and the gains are larger than they sound.
Domestic balance
Institutions, governance, corruption, elections deferred — how a state holds itself together under permanent emergency.
Domestic balance
When the strikes moved from the wires to the turbines
The attacks of 2022 targeted substations, which can be repaired in days. The attacks of spring 2024 targeted generating plant, which cannot. The response had to…
Domestic balance
Turning demining into an industry
By early 2024 Ukraine had done something few mine-affected countries manage: it built a certification and market structure so that clearance could scale beyond what donors…
Domestic balance
The winter that went better than expected
The winter of 2023 to 2024 passed with far fewer outages than the one before it. Understanding why is more useful than being relieved about it.
Domestic balance
Teaching children what not to touch
Children are disproportionately the victims of explosive remnants, for reasons that are entirely predictable and therefore addressable.
Domestic balance
The second winter, prepared for in advance
The winter of 2022 was survived by improvisation. The winter of 2023 was prepared for, and the difference between those two words is most of the…
Domestic balance
Preparing for a winter before it arrives
The winter of 2022 was survived by improvisation. The winter of 2023 was prepared for: equipment stockpiled, substations physically protected, and repair crews rehearsed against scenarios…
Domestic balance
Turning demining into an industry
By 2023 clearance had outgrown the model of a few accredited operators. Ukraine opened the sector to certified commercial companies, created a national authority, and started…
Domestic balance
Clearing land is the slowest work there is
Ukraine became one of the most heavily mined countries in the world, and the second quarter of 2023 made the problem harder in a way nobody…
Domestic balance
What the engineers did with the first quiet summer
After surviving one winter of attacks on the grid, Ukrainian power engineers had a few warm months to make the second winter less dangerous. They used…
Domestic balance
The winter the grid was supposed to fail, and did not
Through the winter of 2022 and 2023 the Ukrainian energy system was hit repeatedly and was widely expected to collapse. It did not. Understanding why is…
Domestic balance
The first surveys, and the size of the problem
Before land can be cleared it has to be surveyed, and in early 2023 the surveying was still establishing how large the task would be.
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