“This year, under the state compensation program, almost 10,000 hectares of agricultural land were demined and returned to use.”, — write: www.pravda.com.ua
PHOTO: INTER-REGIONAL CENTER FOR HUMANITARIAN COMMUNICATION AND RAPID RESPONSE OF THE SNES Source: Director of the Center for Humanitarian Demining Volodymyr Baida in a comment to the public broadcaster “Suspilne”
Details: About 137 thousand square kilometers of the territory of Ukraine remain potentially mined as a result of hostilities.
Advertising:
According to Baida, 15-20% of the areas considered potentially dangerous require real demining. Some of them began to be cleaned last year. More than 9,500 hectares have already been put into use, and the state has spent about 570 million hryvnias on demining them. For comparison, the harvest of corn from the same area could bring about 640 million hryvnias.
In 2025, the pace of demining increased significantly. According to the state program, 144 auctions were held for cleaning about 28.5 thousand hectares. The estimated cost of the works is almost 2 billion hryvnias. For comparison, only 9.5 thousand hectares were tendered last year.
Separately, the participation of individual farmers — the most vulnerable category of landowners — has increased. They submitted 213 applications for demining 3.4 thousand hectares.
Also, the number of mine action operators in Ukraine increased to 130, and the total number of demining machines exceeded 280 units, which, according to Baida, is the largest indicator in the world. Part of the equipment is Ukrainian-made, nine more machines are at the certification stage.
According to the Center, the average cost of demining one hectare of agricultural land has decreased from 30,000 dollars to about 1,400 dollars thanks to the opening of the market and competition between operators.
At the same time, the danger for sappers due to Russian drones is increasing. Therefore, Ukraine is considering increasing the safe zone for humanitarian demining from 20 to 50 km from the combat line.
In 2026, the Center for Humanitarian Demining plans to move to clearing territories by landfills, rather than by cadastral numbers, which should speed up the work. Special attention will also be paid to water bodies and forests: according to estimates, more than 400 thousand hectares of forests and up to 1.35 million hectares of water bodies and coasts may remain potentially dangerous.
The state compensation program has been in effect since March 2024. Currently, the state reimburses 100% of the cost of demining, and farmers’ applications go through the State Agrarian Register and the Prozorro system.
Read also: Can robots replace sappers? What the practice and experience of Ukraine shows