Guernseyman is given Ukrainian military award
A GUERNSEYMAN who has undertaken extensive bomb disposal work in Ukraine during the country’s war with Russia has received an award from the Ukrainian military.
Ben Remfrey was presented with the Cross of Support to Ukraine by commander of support forces, Major-General Dmytro Gerega, during a visit to the country last month.
Formerly a demolition specialist in the army, Mr Remfrey is managing director of the Mines Awareness Trust Kosovo Training Centre in the Kosovan city of Peja, and heads up a team of about 40 people which has been working in Kosovo and Ukraine since the start of the war, delivering explosive ordnance disposal training to Ukrainian civilians.
It has also undertaken often life-saving work, including clearance of air-dropped weapons, guided weapons, cluster bombs and improvised devices.
Mr Remfrey said his involvement in Ukraine preceded the Russian invasion in February 2022.
‘The Ukrainian government asked for advice back in 2017 or 2018 in relation to bomb disposal in the Donbass area of the country,’ he said.
‘Through that I built up contacts and relationships in both the government and the Ukrainian army, which proved to be useful later on.’
In 2021, Mr Remfrey’s company was asked by the government to provide bomb disposal training to 14 senior army officers. This training was completed just two months before the Russian invasion, following which he was involved in the foundation of Guernsey-registered charity Friends of Ukraine EOD, which provided additional support and funding and allowed his team to expand its training provision.
Since March 2022, more than 400 Ukrainians have been trained by his team in Kosovo alone, of whom many are women.
Before the war, Ukrainian women were not allowed to be EOD operators, but following a request from Mr Remfrey himself to the country’s authorities, the rule was soon overturned.
‘I’d say it’s probably my biggest achievement,’ he said.
‘Basically they needed the numbers, and attitudes needed to change as well.’
An initial eight women from the Ukrainian army and National Guard were first to be trained, and before long there was a 50/50 gender split.
‘Women are now an absolutely integral part of clearance operations throughout Ukraine’s national agencies,’ Mr Remfrey said.
His team’s base in Kosovo is considered to be the world’s premier International Mine Action Standards training facility, with personnel from over 70 countries having been trained there since 2015.
‘I met the chief of a UN delegation in Kyiv last month about the possibility of us training 300 more women for one of their programmes,’ he said.
‘Things are very busy right now, in a way its unfortunate but where there are wars you need quality training procedures in place otherwise you’ll be in trouble.’
Reflecting on his award, he said was ‘humbled’ by the accolade, but was quick to pay tribute to his colleagues’ work, which he said was often done in ‘difficult and stressful’ conditions. ‘Doing what we do, we do for the right reasons.’
