Ukraine needs ten times the number of professionals trained to international standards for humanitarian demining. That is why the Government expects partner countries to help train deminers. This was stated by First Deputy Prime Minister – Minister of Economy of Ukraine Yuliia Svyrydenko in an address at the International Summit of Cities and Regions held in the framework of the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities under the President of Ukraine. President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg and Head of the Office of the President of Ukraine Andriy Yermak also attended the meeting.

“Nearly 174,000 square kilometers of land in Ukraine are potentially contaminated. This is the land that provides food for approximately 81 million people around the world. This is a huge amount of work, which Ukraine can only do with extremely effective organization and only with the help of the international community,” said Yuliia Svyrydenko.

According to the First Deputy Prime Minister, an action plan has been drawn up to clear agricultural land of mines. Priority economic regions have been identified, a map of potentially hazardous areas has been approved, and clear and transparent criteria for the phasing of demining have been established. A total of 470,000 hectares of agricultural land will be surveyed and cleared of mines.

The largest area of contaminated land is in the south and east of Ukraine. More than 208,000 hectares need to be surveyed in Kherson Oblast, almost 160,000 hectares in Kharkiv Oblast and more than 85,000 hectares in Mykolaiv Oblast.

All of this requires significant funding. The World Bank estimates that the full range of humanitarian demining activities could cost USD 37.4 billion. Preliminary estimates suggest that USD 1.5 billion is needed for priority survey and clearance of agricultural land alone.

The First Deputy Prime Minister invited international partners to join humanitarian demining and take over patronage of designated areas.

“We must solve this problem together to save the world from a food crisis and people’s lives from mortal danger,” concluded Yuliia Svyrydenko.