“Sappers returned 17,000 square meters to use. km of the territory of Ukraine in 2024. In 2024, 35,000 km of the territory of Ukraine were surveyed and demined. sq. km of territory, of which 17 thousand sq. km returned to use. 73 mine action operators and 200 mechanical demining machines were involved.”, — write on: unn.ua
Details
“As of the end of 2024, 35,000 sq. km of Ukrainian land has been surveyed, cleared or demined. This is more than the area of Odesa Oblast – the largest of all the regions of Ukraine. About 17,000 sq. km were returned to use in 2024,” – Yulia Svyridenko said.
In addition, she noted that, in particular, in 2024, Ukrainian sappers returned more than 285,000 ha (2,850 sq. km) of agricultural land designated for priority survey and cleaning. In total, more than 318,000 pyrotechnics were inspected during the year. ha (3,180 sq. km) of such lands.
At the end of the year, there were more than 200 mechanical demining machines, some of which were manufactured or assembled in Ukraine. 73 mine countermeasures operators have been certified. Almost 5,500 specialists already work in this field
In addition, last year the Ministry of Economy together with the Center for Humanitarian Demining launched a market for demining services for agricultural lands. The involvement of private operators in the demining of agricultural lands, whose work is 100% covered by the state, will speed up the clearing of our lands.
We have a transparent system that allows us to conduct tenders for the purchase of agricultural land demining services on competitive terms. At the same time, the farmer does not pay for demining, these costs are covered by the state. The Center for Humanitarian Demining has already held 50 auctions and concluded 47 agreements for the demining of agricultural land. The total savings amounted to more than 15%, or 97 million hryvnias. Simulations show that after demining these lands, in only 1-2 years it is possible to harvest a grain crop, the profit from which will be commensurate or even higher than the costs of demining
Addition
According to information from the State Emergency Service, during 2023-2024, the capabilities of sapper units in both the State Emergency Service and the National Police significantly improved.
Thanks to the increased level of training, improvement of technical equipment and new organization of control, sappers of the Ministry of Internal Affairs removed more than 898,000 explosive items.
In addition, with the support of the Japanese government and JICA, the construction of the Sappers Training Center began. It will become a base for training specialists from both the public and private sectors.
In September, the Office of Mine Action, which provides real-time monitoring of demining, began operating on the basis of the State Emergency Service.
The modernized Center for Underwater Demining currently employs 336 diver sappers, including 24 deep-sea demining specialists who use barocameras to work at depths of up to 50 meters.
The system of the Ministry of Internal Affairs also has 101 mechanized demining machines at its disposal. In addition, a hub has been created for their maintenance, as well as a workshop for repairing metal detectors.
Also, it is reported that there are 2 certification centers operating in the system of the State Emergency Service, during which 35 organizations received the status of mine countermeasures operators (10 of them are units of the State Emergency Service). Another 35 organizations are at various stages of certification.