Over 200K ha of farmland cleared of mines in Ukraine YTD

Since the beginning of the year, thanks to the work of sapper units of government agencies and non-governmental operators, Ukrainian farmers have returned to use more than 200,000 hectares of agricultural land scheduled for priority survey and demining.

According to Ukrinform, this was reported by the Ministry of Economy.

"Our sappers - units of the State Emergency Service, the State Transport Special Service, and non-governmental mine action operators - are showing very good results. Even now, in winter, when the weather is not conducive to working in the fields, to put it mildly, we survey 3,000-5,000 hectares of agricultural land every week. As of today, out of 470,000 hectares of land that we have planned to inspect, clear and demine as a matter of priority, more than 200,000 hectares have already been returned to farmers for economic use," Yulia Svyrydenko, First Deputy Prime Minister - Minister of Economy of Ukraine, said.

She emphasized that the Government and international partners are working hard to strengthen the capacity of operators and to strategically plan the work of all stakeholders in the field of mine action for the next ten years. According to her, the ultimate goal is to return to safe use up to 80% of the country's territories that are currently considered potentially contaminated.

As of December 15, since the beginning of the year, 268,600 hectares of agricultural land have been surveyed out of about 470,000 hectares planned for priority survey and demining. Of these, about 205,000 hectares have been returned to operation. Over the past week, more than 5,000 hectares were surveyed. The largest area - 3,800 hectares - is in Kherson region.

As reported, the Ministry of Economy is working to create and launch a highly competitive market for demining services. An innovative approach being developed is to offer partners to patronize certain areas or sectors of work.