Humanitarian demining is one of the Government’s priorities. The priority is to survey and clear 174,000 square kilometres of potentially contaminated land in Ukraine. This year, Korea has already handed over a batch of mine detectors and protective equipment for deminers to Ukraine, and the Government counts on Korea’s support in this area in the future.

This was stated by First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economy of Ukraine Yuliia Svyrydenko during a meeting with Minister of Land, Infrastructure and Transport of the Republic of Korea Won Hee-ryong. The meeting was part of the visit of the Ukrainian delegation with the participation of First Lady Olena Zelenska to the Republic of Korea.

“Ukraine is grateful to the Government of the Republic of Korea for its systematic support in various sectors of the economy and, in particular, for providing technical assistance in the field of humanitarian demining. We have received 6 demining vehicles from Korea and look forward to further support in this area. Infrastructure and life support facilities, agricultural land are of paramount importance in the context of demining. Ukraine needs a lot of equipment and demining specialists to ensure that the process of clearing Ukrainian land is carried out as quickly as possible. We are counting on the support of our international partners,” said Yuliia Svyrydenko.

The issue of providing more equipment for humanitarian demining is currently under consideration by the Korean Government. It is expected that this issue will be resolved in a short time. The First Deputy Prime Minister added that the priority regions for demining were Dnipropetrovsk, Zaporizhzhia, Kyiv, Mykolaiv, Sumy, Kharkiv, Kherson, Chernihiv, and Cherkasy regions.

The parties also discussed the issue of Korean businesses investing in Ukrainian enterprises and joining the country’s reconstruction without waiting for the end of the war. In particular, Ukraine is focused on agriculture, green energy, mining and processing, green and nuclear energy, transport, and logistics.

“The reconstruction of Ukraine has two parts – immediate assistance to rebuild destroyed infrastructure and housing, and the post-war reconstruction of the country. We are currently focusing on early recovery and calling on international partners to send a signal to their companies that Ukraine is a favourable country for investment, offering many opportunities and prospects for business development. It is important to understand that we do not want to reconstruct the old, we want to build a new country with the latest technologies from the world’s leading countries, including Korea,” Yuliia Svyrydenko stressed.

The First Deputy Prime Minister offered the Korean side to take under its patronage the reconstruction of one of the regions that was under occupation. The Korean Government has a firm position on supporting Ukraine at the level of the state and companies interested in the reconstruction of Ukraine and considering its economy for investment.