Due to the flooding after the destruction of the Kakhovka HPP dam, russian mines were spread thousands of kilometres along the Dnipro River and up to the Black Sea. Ukrainian explosive experts have already found and defused more than 80 dangerous items. But the work is still ongoing.

This was stated by Yuliia Svyrydenko, First Deputy Prime Minister of Ukraine and Minister of Economy of Ukraine, during a meeting with members of the International Working Group on the Environmental Consequences of War: Margot Wallström, former Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister of Sweden, Heidi Hautala, Vice-President of the European Parliament, Mary Robinson, President of Ireland in 1990-1997, and Greta Thunberg, environmental activist.

"The Government responded promptly to this emergency. More than 100 specialists were involved in the survey and clean-up of the flooded areas. They checked more than ten kilometres of roads, an area of 650 hectares and two bridges," said the First Deputy Prime Minister of Ukraine.

According to Yuliia Svyrydenko, the Government plans to return 80% of potentially contaminated Ukrainian land to use over the next 10 years. Western partners are already providing assistance in meeting this challenge.

Thanks to their support, about 3,000 sappers and 20 mechanised demining machines are currently working to decontaminate Ukrainian land. However, this is not enough.

"We additionally need more than 80 demining vehicles, more than 500 vehicles to transport sappers, the same number to transport hazardous items for disposal, and more than 1,000 mine detectors," said the First Deputy Prime Minister of Ukraine.

Yuliia Svyrydenko also said that humanitarian demining had become one of the key issues at the Ukraine Recovery Conference in London last week. On the sidelines of the conference, Ukrainian and foreign manufacturers of special equipment signed memoranda of cooperation. In particular, with the Croatian corporation DOK-ING d.o.o. and the Danish manufacturer HYDREMA. According to Yuliia Svyrydenko, these agreements will help localise the production of demining machines in Ukraine, and thus help speed up the survey of our territories.