The entire territory of Kherson region currently mined - Klymenko
Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko said this in an interview with RBC-Ukraine, Ukrinform reports.
"For example, the Kyiv region. We thought that it was heavily mined, then it turned out that the Chernihiv region was even more mined, the Kharkiv region even more, and the Kherson region is completely mined," the official said.
He reminded that 174,000 square kilometres of territory are currently considered mined in Ukraine. When asked how long it would take to clear our territories of mines, Klymenko said that the speed would depend on the area and intensity of the mines.
"We know how many mines arrive on the coast of the Kherson region every day, and we receive relevant data every day. And these areas will need to be re-surveyed. That is, once we have cleared them of mines, something has landed there again, and we will have to clear them one more time," the Interior Minister explained.
The minister informed about the depth of demining, saying that it is a rather long-term process.
"Here we are already working with our international partners, who are already providing us with remote mechanised demining machines to clear hectares of fields, which we are successfully doing now. By the end of the year, we expect to have about 35 of these machines - for the Ministry of Internal Affairs alone. In addition to the Cabinet of Ministers, the government is negotiating to provide additional such vehicles," the official said.
He expressed hope that this year the Ukrainian industry will be able to provide more such vehicles to be used for demining.
"But first of all, we must understand that we have to clear the routes under power lines, for example, those in the Kharkiv region, which are 12,000 kilometers long. Imagine the resources we need. We don't have the resources to clear everything at once," Klymenko said.
According to him, the specialists are often unable to do so because of the constant shelling of both the frontline and border areas.
The Interior Minister said that the issue of demining would be discussed in Brussels at a meeting of interior ministers.
"Mine clearance will be one of the main topics for the world to understand the scale of the tragedy we are facing. There is a lot of work to be done, and we can't even imagine the scale," the minister said.
As reported earlier, on 17 May, First Lady Olena Zelenska said that Ukraine hoped for South Korea's assistance in demining equipment.
