During the week, units of the State Emergency Service, the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the State Special Transport Service and non-governmental operators surveyed more than 12,000 hectares of agricultural lands designated for priority demining. 2,323 hectares of agricultural lands were demined. 

Such data on the implementation of the Action Plan for Agricultural Land Demining were announced at the meeting of the Interagency Working Group on Humanitarian Demining chaired by First Deputy Prime Minister of Ukraine – Minister of Economy of Ukraine Yuliia Svyrydenko on 10 April 2023.

“There is good news. 12,000 hectares of agricultural lands designated for priority demining were surveyed during the past week. Given the resources available to us today, we are at a good pace,” Yuliia Svyrydenko noted.

According to the information of the operators engaged in the work, the lands designated by the Priority Demining Plan in Cherkasy, Dnipropetrovsk oblasts and the controlled part of Zaporizhzhia oblast were fully surveyed. According to the survey results, lands in these regions require no demining.

As a reminder, it concerns lands located in controlled territories. In regions where hostilities continue (for example, Zaporizhzhia Oblast), the list of priority demining lands includes lands located no closer than 20 kilometers from the line of active hostilities and which are not subjected to constant shelling. The Plan included survey and further demining, if necessary, of the following lands:

in Cherkasy Oblast – 885 hectares; 

in Zaporizhzhia Oblast – 1,232 hectares;

in Dnipropetrovsk Oblast – 2,645 hectares;

In total, 470,000 hectares of agricultural lands are planned for priority survey and demining, if necessary, in 9 regions of Ukraine.

“There is still a lot of work ahead and we must make efforts to speed up the demining of Ukrainian territories. We need equipment, primarily demining machines. The State Emergency Service, in cooperation with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, has been instructed to quickly establish contacts with foreign manufacturers for the purpose of purchasing or ordering such machines. In addition, we look for equipment in the countries which have used such equipment before and where it is available. Finally, we are intensifying work with Ukrainian manufacturers who are ready to work in this area,” Yuliia Svyrydenko said.

According to the First Deputy Prime Minister of Ukraine, in order to speed up demining, it is also necessary to intensify the involvement of the latest technologies, in particular, to use drones capable of detecting explosive objects.

As it was noted at the IWG, the appropriate site for testing drones in real conditions has already been determined and testing can begin in the near future.

During the meeting, the tasks of preparing the conditions for the large-scale involvement of financial, technical and institutional assistance from donor countries for the needs of demining were discussed. 

The fact that oblast military administrations and local self-government authorities need to strengthen the information and explanatory work among citizens regarding the danger of visiting unsurveyed territories and take other measures aimed at strengthening the safety of citizens was separately emphasized.