Yuliia Svyrydenko and Denise Brown discuss cooperation between Ukraine and the UN in the field of demining
Humanitarian demining of the territory of Ukraine will restore and increase the capacity of our country to ensure food security in the world. This was discussed during a meeting between the First Deputy Prime Minister of Ukraine, Minister of Economy of Ukraine Yuliia Svyrydenko and the UN Resident Coordinator in Ukraine and Humanitarian Coordinator Denise Brown.
"russia's large-scale invasion has resulted in, among other things, the destruction of production chains and facilities, and the blocking of logistics routes. Nevertheless, Ukraine is doing everything it can to provide food to countries in dire need. With the UN's mediation, the Grain Initiative is being implemented, with more than 30 million tonnes of agricultural products shipped through the Grain Corridor to date. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's humanitarian initiative Grain from Ukraine, aimed at preventing hunger in the poorest countries of Africa and Asia, has global support. Ukraine takes its mission to ensure food security in the world with responsibility and seeks to increase its role. Therefore, one of the key obstacles to this is the large-scale contamination of Ukraine's territory with explosive ordnance," said Yuliia Svyrydenko.
The First Deputy Prime Minister of Ukraine and Minister of Economy of Ukraine stressed that about 174,000 square kilometres, or about 30% of Ukraine's territory, are currently potentially contaminated. This area is a source of food for about 81 million people worldwide.
According to her, the survey and clean-up of this territory, as well as the return to economic exploitation of agricultural land, is and will be a priority for Ukraine. Therefore, given the scale of the work, our country needs strong assistance from the international community and counts on the UN to play a leading role in organising and providing support to Ukraine.
"We welcome and are extremely grateful to the UN for the assistance already provided and its readiness to scale it up. Today, a project initiated by the United Nations Development Programme at the request of the Ministry of Economy of Ukraine is already being implemented to attract the world's leading technologies to survey the territory of our country. The possibility of deploying the UNMAS Mine Action Service in Ukraine is being considered. We are counting on the technical and institutional assistance of the UN units, in particular, assistance in training our pyrotechnics, attracting innovative technologies, etc.", said Yuliia Svyrydenko.