Since the first year of full-scale war, the area of potentially mined land in Ukraine has been reduced from 174,000 to about 139,000 square kilometres. This is the result of a non-technical survey of areas and their clearance by the Defence Forces and mine action operators. This was announced by Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal following a meeting on the status of demining activities in 2024.

The meeting was attended by First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economy Yuliia Svyrydenko, Minister of Internal Affairs Ihor Klymenko, Minister of Agrarian Policy and Food Vitalii Koval, First Deputy Minister of Defence Ivan Havryliuk, representatives of the Humanitarian Demining Centre, the State Emergency Service, the Main Mine Action Department of the Ministry of Defence, and representatives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The meeting summarised the results of 2024 and outlined the range of tasks for the current year.

According to Denys Shmyhal, in 2024 the SES and National Police units cleared almost 695 square kilometres of territory and destroyed more than 133,000 mines and shells. In total, since the start of the full-scale war, emergency services and law enforcement agencies have cleared about 2,100 square kilometres of Ukrainian land.

“Today, there are 73 mine action operators on the Ukrainian market. A mechanism has been set up to compensate farmers for 100% of the cost of demining services. More than 50 agreements have been signed for agricultural land in four regions. Ukraine has more than 200 demining machines, including Ukraine-made ones. We plan to increase their number and strengthen the repair base,” the Prime Minister said.

He also announced plans for mine clearance in 2025:

• to carry out technical surveys of territories covering an area of 31,000 square kilometres;
• introduce new innovative technologies, including the use of drones and robotic systems;
• create a register of contaminated or potentially contaminated areas;
• continue the development of the training centre for deminers, which is being created with the support of Japan;
• create an interagency training base for mine-sniffing and detector dogs.

The Prime Minister instructed the First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economy to strengthen coordination between all ministries and agencies involved in demining.

“It is essential for us to demine the country in years, not decades. The use of modern technology makes this possible. In general, in accordance with the National Mine Action Strategy, we have set ourselves the goal of bringing 80% of the areas directly affected by the war back into use by 2033,” concluded Denys Shmyhal.