To accelerate humanitarian demining, Ukraine will attract investments in this area. This was stated by Yuliia Svyrydenko, First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economy of Ukraine, during the panel discussion “Humanitarian Demining in Ukraine: Looking Ahead”. The event took place on 16 January at the World Economic Forum in Davos.

“Over the past year, we have returned to use more than 10% of the territories, or about 18,000 square kilometres of Ukrainian land, which were considered potentially contaminated. To accelerate the humanitarian demining process, we are working to attract private capital and investment,” said Yuliia Svyrydenko.

According to the First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economy, Ukraine’s main goal for 2024 in the field of humanitarian demining is to launch a market for relevant services. To do this, the Ministry of Economy plans to implement a number of legislative, technological and financial initiatives.

This includes launching a compensation programme for farmers who have ordered survey and demining services for their land at their own expense. The state budget for 2024 earmarks UAH 3 billion for this purpose.

The Ministry of Economy is working to improve the certification procedure to remove barriers that prevent new operators from entering the market for these services. Work is also underway to update existing and develop new mine action standards and to develop a model for prioritising potentially contaminated areas. All of these and other legislative steps will be outlined in a 3-year Operational Plan that will implement the National Mine Action Strategy. The latter is in the final stages of approval.

In her speech, Yuliia Svyrydenko also stressed the importance of using innovative technologies in demining. In particular, the use of drones, satellite imagery, remote sensing technologies, and artificial intelligence.

“We have already initiated the launch of a relevant accelerator programme that will allow selected startups to take training courses, receive mentoring from industry experts, assistance in testing technologies at training grounds and support in entering the market,” Yuliia Svyrydenko said.

However, funding remains a key issue for the humanitarian demining process in Ukraine. The most effective approach to solving it is to attract both public and private capital. Yuliia Svyrydenko suggested using not only grants or donor funds to finance humanitarian demining, but also a number of innovative financial mechanisms. She also called on partners to work together on these mechanisms.

In 2023, Ukraine significantly increased its humanitarian demining capacity. Today, Ukraine has 28 certified operators, 48 more in the process of certification, 3,500 deminers, and 32 heavy vehicles for humanitarian demining.