Following the full-scale russian invasion, Ukraine has become the most contaminated country in Europe with mines, bombs and shells. About 174,000 square kilometers of our land are peppered with explosive objects. This was stated by Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal during a Government session on April 4.

"Over the past month alone, 724 people have been blown up on russian mines, 226 of them killed. Many fertile Ukrainian lands are unusable for cultivation. They are dangerous for farmers. But the harvests from these lands could feed more than 80 million people around the world. Especially in countries suffering from hunger," the Prime Minister emphasized.

Denys Shmyhal underlined that Ukraine needed fast and thorough humanitarian demining of the territories. Given the scale of the work, the Government has identified such demining as one of the five key priorities for rapid recovery.

"We have already formed a regulatory framework, intensified the work of the National Mine Action Authority, created an Interagency Working Group on Humanitarian Demining, and approved a plan to demine more than 470,000 hectares of agricultural land in nine regions of Ukraine," the Prime Minister said.

According to him, almost 350 demining groups involving Ukrainian and foreign specialists are working. About 320,000 explosive items have been neutralized. Mykolaiv region became the first region to start humanitarian demining of agricultural land.

The Prime Minister noted that right now the second sowing season of the great war was underway across the country. Farmers in all regions have sown more than 500,000 hectares.

"In total, we expect to sow more than 13 million hectares this year. Therefore, all demining activities and assistance to our farmers are a high priority," emphasized Denys Shmyhal.

The Head of Government thanked all the pyrotechnics who were clearing Ukrainian land on a daily basis.