Ukraine war: pensioner sweeps fields for mines to put her cow out to pasture

Local resident Hanna Plishchynska, 67-year-old, uses a metal detector to find mines, shells and shrapnel at a field near her house, after she came back to the village of Stepova Dolyna a few weeks ago, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Mykolaiv region, Ukraine May 25, 2023. REUTERS/Viktoriia Lakezina

STEPOVA DOLYNA, Ukraine (Reuters) - Hanna Plishchynska, a pensioner, has been using a metal detector to comb her fields for mines and war detritus in the ruins of her village in southwesten Ukraine, so she can put her cow out to pasture and plant vegetables.

The 67-year-old returned several weeks ago to her home in Stepova Dolyna, a rural community of 150 people in Mykolaiv region that emptied as fighting raged for months last year during Russia's invasion.