Potentially mined land area has decreased by more than 20% compared to the end of 2022: Denys Shmyhal
The state of implementation of humanitarian demining measures was discussed at a meeting at the Mine Action Office of the State Emergency Service of Ukraine (SESU). According to the Prime Minister of Ukraine Denys Shmyhal, Ukraine has made significant progress in clearing Ukrainian land of explosive ordnance. At the same time, the Head of Government accentuated the challenges that need to be addressed.
According to him, the area of potentially mined land has decreased by more than 20% compared to the end of 2022 and today amounts to about 137,000 km2. These are mostly agricultural lands. The SESU, the National Police, the Ministry of Defense and non-governmental mine action operators are carrying out the clearance work. The resource of 112 certified operators, including eight foreign operators currently working in Ukraine, includes more than 9,000 specialists, 278 units of demining and excavating equipment, and more than 13,000 metal detectors.
During the meeting, the First Deputy Prime Minister - Minister of Economy, Minister of Agrarian Policy and Minister of Internal Affairs delivered reports. The participants discussed proposals to strengthen demining support for farmers.
"The State Agrarian Register should become the only tool for interaction in providing compensation for the costs of humanitarian demining of agricultural land. Data should be entered into the register more promptly," the Prime Minister emphasized.
The participants also heard information from the Ministry of Defense on demining of the frontline territories.
“We agreed with the ministries to redistribute powers in the field of operational and humanitarian demining to improve coordination of the process,” said Denys Shmyhal.
Following the meeting, the Head of Government assigned a number of tasks to the ministries and responsible officials. Among them, in particular, to accelerate the launch of the Register of territories contaminated with explosive objects, as well as to develop an action plan to attract international funding directly for demining activities. The Prime Minister noted that Ukraine has already formed a large international demining capability coalition of more than fifty states and attracted USD 1.2 billion in assistance for the cleanup of territories.
"Humanitarian demining is a key element of rapid recovery. Our goal is to constantly increase the pace of work to clear Ukrainian fields, villages, cities, and infrastructure of mines as soon as possible," emphasized Denys Shmyhal.
