In November, explosive ordnance disposal units of government agencies and non-governmental operators surveyed more than 17,000 hectares of agricultural land. According to the regional military administrations, more than 257,000 hectares of land have been surveyed since the beginning of the year as part of priority demining of agricultural land.

“Despite the deteriorating weather conditions, our explosive ordnance disposal specialists continue to survey and clear the most valuable Ukrainian land. Over the last week of November, more than 3,000 hectares were surveyed and over 1,500 hectares were cleared or demined. Since the beginning of the year, nearly 195,000 hectares have been returned to farmers for economic use. The Government continues to work on strengthening the capabilities of explosive ordnance disposal units. The goal is to speed up the clean-up of the country’s territory,” Yuliia Svyrydenko, First Deputy Prime Minister - Minister of Economy of Ukraine, said.

In November, the largest area of 12,400 hectares was surveyed in the Kherson oblast as part of the plan to bring agricultural land back into use. In Kharkiv oblast, explosive ordnance disposal specialists surveyed more than 3,500 hectares of farmland over the month. More than 1,300 hectares were surveyed in the Mykolaiv oblast.

The day before, the Governments of Slovenia and Ukraine signed an agreement on Slovenia's provision of EUR 1.5 million in non-refundable humanitarian aid for humanitarian demining.