Humanitarian demining of Ukraine continues: 115,000 hectares have been surveyed since the beginning of the year
The demining of the fields was reported to the Ministry of Economy. Since the beginning of the year, government and non-government mine action operators have surveyed more than 115,000 hectares.
After the start of a full-scale war, a significant part of agricultural land in Ukraine is contaminated with explosive objects. This causes additional trouble and prevents farmers from working, and therefore has a noticeable negative impact on the country’s economy, since the agricultural sector is one of the main ones in the structure of Ukrainian exports.
“In April, the pyrotechnic units surveyed almost 35,000 hectares of agricultural land. And in total, since the beginning of the year, more than 115,000 hectares. Of them, 108,000 hectares were returned to farmers for economic exploitation as of the beginning of May. The pace of the survey exceeds last year’s. If in In 2023, on average, pyrotechnics surveyed 22,800 hectares of agricultural land per month, and according to the results of the four months of 2024, we reached an average figure of 28,750 hectares per month operators, the involvement of modern technologies and the implementation of new solutions in the field of mine countermeasures,” the Minister of Economy notes Yulia Svyridenko.
The head of the ministry emphasized that the government is currently working on attracting investments and developing state funding programs for the development and production of machinery and equipment for demining. Foreign manufacturers of such equipment will also be invited to locate their production facilities in Ukraine.
“This is not only a contribution to humanitarian demining, but also the development of the economy, because the production of equipment in Ukraine means jobs and taxes to the state budget, thanks to which we can finance our security and defense sector. The development of domestic production is a key component of the policy.” “Made in Ukraine” is an undeniable priority in the government’s work, Yuliya Svyridenko says.
We will remind that in March, the Cabinet of Ministers approved the procedure for compensating farmers for humanitarian demining of land. Now the state will compensate farmers 80% cost of demining fields. In general, in 2024, UAH 3 billion has been allocated from the state budget to compensate farmers who will purchase demining services.
