Priority demining of agricultural lands has started in Mykolaiv region. As discussed at a meeting of the Interagency Working Group on Humanitarian Demining chaired by the First Vice Prime Minister and Minister of Economy of Ukraine Yuliia Svyrydenko, significant forces from the engineering and sapper units of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, pyrotechnic units of the State Emergency Service, and foreign operators have been deployed to the region. Thus, the Ministry of Defence alone has 11 demining teams engaged in the region, with
9 more teams joining them next week. The State Emergency Service has 7 teams in the region.
As Yuliia Svyrydenko noted during the meeting, the analysis of the pace of work in Mykolaiv region, the needs and issues arising during the survey and clearance of the territory will help to optimise the demining process in other regions as well.
At the same time, the First Vice Prime Minister and Minister of Economy of Ukraine stressed the need to accelerate the solution of the problems already identified.
"We must do everything possible to resolve issues related to the organisation of planned humanitarian demining in a short time. We are talking about creating a register of areas to be cleared, communication and control tools. We will engage foreign and domestic operators to speed up demining activities. The priority is demining of agricultural lands," said Yuliia Svyrydenko.
At the meeting of the Interagency Working Group on Humanitarian Demining, the following issues were discussed:
- finalizing the Action Plan for demining agricultural lands and submitting the document to the National Mine Action Authority (NMAA) for approval
- the current situation with humanitarian demining in certain regions of Ukraine;
- improving the regulatory framework to accelerate demining, as well as removing obstacles to the involvement of private and international operators in the process;
- use of explosive and pyrotechnic materials by non-governmental demining operators, etc.
According to preliminary estimates, more than 470,854 hectares of agricultural lands in 9 oblasts of Ukraine (Dnipropetrovsk, Zaporizhzhia, Kyiv, Mykolaiv, Sumy, Kharkiv, Kherson, Chernihiv and Cherkasy) need to be surveyed and, if necessary, demined (humanitarian demining).
Therefore, based on the results of a non-technical or technical survey, the area in need of humanitarian demining can be significantly reduced.
It is envisaged that survey and demining activities will be carried out first in the regions where the problem of contamination is most urgent and the clean-up of agricultural lands is most economically feasible.