We hope that the Netherlands will play a significant role in the future “demining coalition”: Yuliia Svyrydenko at a meeting with Jennes de Mol

The issue of humanitarian demining of the territory of Ukraine was the main topic of the meeting between Yuliia Svyrydenko, First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economy of Ukraine, and Jennes de Mol, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Kingdom of the Netherlands to Ukraine.

Yuliia Svyrydenko thanked the Government and people of the Netherlands for their support of Ukraine. In particular, for their assistance in demining the territory.

“We are grateful to the Netherlands for participating in donor programmes to clear the territory of Ukraine of mines and unexploded ordnance. Today, our deminers from the State Emergency Service, the Armed Forces, and the State Special Transport Service are working alongside foreign operators whose work is funded, including by the Government of the Netherlands. Therefore, we need a larger-scale assistance from the international community, because the scale of the problem is extraordinary – about 30% of Ukraine’s territory is potentially contaminated,” said Yuliia Svyrydenko.

The First Deputy Prime Minister – Minister of Economy of Ukraine told the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Netherlands about the work already done and about Ukraine’s plans to demine agricultural land, infrastructure and settlements selected for participation in the pilot project on comprehensive reconstruction.

According to Yuliia Svyrydenko, nearly 90,000 hectares of farmland have been surveyed recently.

“Over the past week alone, more than 1,400 hectares of agricultural land have been cleared of mines in Ukraine. But this figure could be many times higher if we had enough equipment, people and more support from the international community,” said Yuliia Svyrydenko.

According to the First Deputy Prime Minister, today there are about 2,000 deminers from government agencies and about 600 from non-governmental demining operators working in Ukraine, with 12 demining vehicles involved. At the same time, to speed up the survey and, where necessary, demining of the territory of Ukraine, much more trained people, demining vehicles, transportation of explosive ordnance, personnel and equipment are needed.

According to Yuliia Svyrydenko, Ukraine has already created the basis for strengthening cooperation with partners in the field of demining. Thus, an account has been opened as part of the United24 platform, which will be used for humanitarian demining of the country’s territory. In addition, the Government has established a budgetary institution, the Humanitarian Demining Centre, which will coordinate the clearance of Ukraine’s territory.

“We hope that the Netherlands will play a significant role in the future ‘demining coalition’,” said Yuliia Svyrydenko.

The World Bank estimates that the full range of humanitarian demining works in Ukraine will cost USD 37,4 billion. Currently, the Government is implementing a plan for priority demining of agricultural land, which will prioritise the survey and clearance of 470,000 hectares of economically valuable agricultural land.