Demining of agricultural land: more than 150,000 hectares out of 470,000 surveyed

Last week, deminers surveyed more than 5,000 hectares of agricultural land in four regions of the country and cleared more than 3,000 hectares, according to regional military administrations. In total, more than 150,000 hectares of farmland have been surveyed since the beginning of the year, out of the 470,000 hectares planned for priority clearance.

“Due to the nature of the process and the density of the contamination, the pace of surveying and demining agricultural land is not constant from week to week. In general, however, it remains at a fairly high level. Last week, deminers reached the milestone of 150,000 hectares of surveyed land, out of the total area to be returned to economic life within four years,” said Yuliia Svyrydenko, First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economy of Ukraine.

According to the First Deputy Prime Minister, since the beginning of the year, more than 21% of the agricultural land identified for priority recovery has been inspected in Kharkiv region. In Kherson region – almost a quarter. In Mykolaiv region – more than 67%.

According to Yuliia Svyrydenko, an important task is to strengthen the capacities of government operators – units of the State Emergency Service, the Ministry of Defence, and the State Special Transport Service. In particular, equipping them with appropriate equipment that will help to significantly speed up land clearance, training deminers, and financing the work.

This issue was given special attention at the Ukraine Recovery Conference in London. Specific results were achieved. In particular, a number of memoranda of understanding were signed with foreign manufacturers to localise the production of demining equipment in Ukraine.

IC UAC according to the MEU