Since the beginning of the year, thanks to the work of demining units of government agencies and non-governmental operators, Ukrainian farmers received back into use more than 200,000 hectares of agricultural land scheduled for priority survey and demining. This was announced by First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economy of Ukraine Yuliia Svyrydenko, citing data from regional military administrations.

“Our deminers – the units of the State Emergency Service, the State Special Transport Service, and non-governmental mine action operators – are showing very good results. Even now, in winter, when the weather is not conducive to work in the fields, to put it mildly, 3,000 to 5,000 hectares of agricultural land are surveyed every week. As of today, more than 200,000 hectares of the 470,000 hectares of land that we have planned to survey, clear and demine as a matter of priority, have already been returned to farmers,” said Yuliia Svyrydenko.

The First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economy stressed that the Government and international partners were working hard to strengthen the capacity of operators and to strategically plan the work of all stakeholders in the field of mine action for the next 10 years. According to her, the ultimate goal is to return to safe use up to 80% of the country’s territories currently considered potentially contaminated.

According to regional military administrations, as of 15 December, 268,600 hectares of agricultural land have been surveyed since the beginning of the year, out of about 470,000 hectares planned for priority survey and demining. Of these, about 205,000 hectares have been returned to use. Over 5,000 hectares were surveyed last week. Most of them – 3,800 hectares – were surveyed in Kherson region.