Partners have welcomed the national approaches to humanitarian demining presented by Ukraine at the Recovery Conference in London and are ready to provide appropriate technical and financial assistance. This was announced by Yuliia Svyrydenko, First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economy of Ukraine, during a meeting of the Interagency Working Group on Humanitarian Demining.

“Our proposed approaches to demining models and standards have been well received. Our partners understand that these solutions, which are somewhat uncommon, will allow us to speed up the clearance of areas as much as possible. So we have their support and willingness to help technically and financially, and we are moving forward. Next month, we will discuss with the donor pool the mechanisms for funding mine action. And we will start active work on the Mine Action Strategy,” said Yuliia Svyrydenko.

As noted during the IWG meeting, support for Ukraine’s approaches was also expressed by partners at a meeting in Switzerland of the Mine Action Support Group, which includes leading donor countries (including the United States, the United Kingdom, Japan, Canada, Germany, France, the Netherlands, and Denmark). The meeting was held as part of the preparations for the 26th International Meeting of Mine Action National Directors and UN Advisers. Much attention was given to humanitarian demining issues in Ukraine, and the same issues were discussed at the 26th International Meeting in Geneva on 22-23 June.

In particular, representatives of international organisations at the Geneva events noted that the contamination situation in Ukraine today was similar to that in Europe after the Second World War. Back then, the whole of Europe came together to meet the challenges. Today, humanitarian demining in Ukraine requires such unity.

The meeting of the Interagency Working Group discussed current issues in humanitarian demining. In particular:

• certification of Ukrainian and foreign operators;
• the possibility of using powerful information technologies, including artificial intelligence, to optimise the planning and organisation of demining operations;
• the use of other modern demining technologies.

In particular, it was noted that the project to test the technology of remote survey of areas using drones was coming to an end. The results will be analysed and the most effective technologies offered by foreign manufacturers will be used to survey Ukrainian territory.

At the same time, Ukraine is interested in developing domestic demining technologies and equipment. During the meeting, the IWG discussed the issues of professional expert assessment of the proposals available on the Ukrainian market and the incorporation of the best domestic solutions in demining.

As Yuliia Svyrydenko pointed out during the IWG meeting, the focus today was also on implementing the plan for priority humanitarian demining of agricultural land, working with partners to strengthen the capacity of Ukrainian government operators, including the provision of machinery and equipment.