Over 156,600 hectares of agricultural land returned to use by deminers in the first half of the year: Yuliia Svyrydenko

Since the beginning of the year, deminers have surveyed more than 171,700 hectares of agricultural land scheduled for priority survey and demining. More than 156,600 hectares have already been returned to farmers for economic use. This was reported by Yuliia Svyrydenko, First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economy of Ukraine.

“Our deminers have taken a very good pace. For example, in Kherson region, we have already inspected and returned to farmers almost 60% of the farmland we planned to inspect this year. In total, since the beginning of the year, more than 156,600 hectares of land have been returned to economic use across Ukraine. As a result, farmers can once again go out into the fields, sow and harvest crops. These are jobs, taxes that the state needs now, bread baked from Kharkiv wheat or watermelons from Kherson fields,” said Yuliia Svyrydenko.

According to the regional military administrations, the scheduled inspection of agricultural land took place in eight regions of the country. Since the beginning of the year, most agricultural land has been inspected in:

• Kherson region – 146,300 hectares (17,760 hectares in June);
• Kharkiv region – 11,300 hectares (4,550 hectares in June);
• Mykolaiv region – 8,300 hectares (1,670 hectares in June).

According to the First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economy, Ukraine has strengthened its humanitarian demining capabilities over the six months.

“We started last year without a single demining vehicle. At the beginning of 2024, we had 30 vehicles. In June, we already had 82 demining vehicles. We will continue to increase their number. After all, we already have examples of localised production of foreign models, and we have domestic developments that will be put into mass production after certification. As for other demining machinery and equipment, operators are already buying Ukrainian-made equipment,” said Yuliia Svyrydenko.

According to her, since the beginning of the year, the number of certified mine action operators has increased by more than one and a half times: 43 operators have already been certified. A further 52 are in the process of being certified.