Since the start of the large-scale invasion, deminers have reclaimed 35,000 square kilometres of Ukrainian land, with 17,000 square kilometres of it restored in 2024. This was announced by Yuliia Svyrydenko, First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economy of Ukraine, during a meeting chaired by Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal.

“As of the end of 2024, 35,000 square kilometres of Ukrainian land have been surveyed, cleared or demined. This is more than the area of Odesa region, the largest of all Ukrainian regions. About 17,000 square kilometres were returned to use in 2024,” said Yuliia Svyrydenko.

In particular, according to the First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economy, in 2024 Ukrainian deminers returned to farmers more than 285,000 hectares (2,850 sq km) of agricultural land identified for priority survey and clearance. In total, more than 318,000 hectares (3,180 sq km) of such land were surveyed during the year. Progress was also made in strengthening the capacity of mine action specialists.

“At the end of the year, there were more than 200 mechanical demining machines, some of which were manufactured or assembled in Ukraine. We have certified 73 mine action operators. Almost 5,500 specialists are already working in this area,” said Yuliia Svyrydenko.

In addition, last year, the Ministry of Economy and the Humanitarian Demining Centre launched a market for demining services for agricultural land. Involvement of private operators in the demining of agricultural land, whose work is 100% covered by the state, will accelerate the clearance of land.

“We have a transparent system that allows us to hold tenders for the purchase of agricultural land demining services on competitive terms. At the same time, the farmer does not pay for demining, these costs are covered by the state. The Humanitarian Demining Centre has already held 50 auctions and concluded 47 agreements for the demining of agricultural land. The total savings amounted to more than 15%, or UAH 97 million. Modelling shows that after the demining of these lands, it will take only 1-2 years to harvest grain, the profit from which will be commensurate or even higher than the cost of demining,” said Yuliia Svyrydenko.

The key factor behind the positive results achieved last year was cooperation with partners and strong support for Ukraine. According to Yuliia Svyrydenko, since the beginning of the full-scale invasion, partners have allocated almost USD 1.1 billion to support humanitarian demining projects. The funds have been used to build mine action capacity, such as training specialists, to work in the field, including direct demining by international operators, and to purchase equipment and machinery.

According to the First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economy, the Sectoral Working Group, which includes about 70 members, has become an effective tool for interaction with partners.