Ukraine is doing everything it can to clear its territory of landmines and other explosive remnants of war but needs the support of its partners, Deputy Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko said on Thursday.
Svyrydenko was speaking at an international conference on mine clearance in the Swiss city of Lausanne, also attended by Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal.
Large areas of Ukraine are contaminated by hundreds of thousands of mines, cluster munitions and unexploded ordnance left behind by Russian and Ukrainian forces in combat zones.
The conference brought together representatives from around 50 countries, as well as mine-clearance organizations, scientists and companies that manufacture demining equipment.
Peter Reuss from the German Foreign Office said that Berlin contributes some €20 million ($21.7 million) per year to the demining effort.
He said he hoped the conference would produce “new insights into how mines and explosive remnants of war can possibly be cleared faster, more effectively and more cheaply.”
Artificial intelligence (AI) was a “big topic” at the conference, Reuss told dpa. AI could be used, for example, to detect where mines are located, he said.
Svyrydenko said that Ukraine had already cleared 35,000 square kilometres of land, partly with self-made machines. This was done not only to enable people to return to their villages, but also to restore fields. Millions of people worldwide depend on Ukrainian wheat.
Ukraine most heavily mined country in the world
Landmines, cluster munitions, unexploded grenades, rockets or downed combat drones can explode if accidentally touched or handled.
Since the full-scale Russian invasion in February 2022, there have been more than 1,000 victims in Ukraine due to mines and unexploded ordnance, with around 300 of them losing their lives.
The United Nations considers Ukraine to be the most heavily mined country in the world. An area larger than Greece, plus mined sea areas, are potentially considered dangerous.
The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) says that only 10% of the area may actually be contaminated, but the entire territory must be searched.
“These risks negatively impact the lives of more than 6 million Ukrainians,” said Ruslan Berehulia, head of the Ukrainian national mine clearance agency.
Special circumstances
There are special circumstances in Ukraine that make the situation different from other mine-affected countries. For one thing, Russia laid mines in denser concentrations than in hardly any other country, said Gary Toombs of the organization Handicap International, which helps mine victims and people with disabilities worldwide.
For another, there are new technologies: For example, mines that are activated by changes in the magnetic field or vibrations in the ground, which further complicates clearance.
Jaco Cilliers, a representative of the UN Development Programme (UNDP) in Ukraine, explained that farmers cannot cultivate their fields, damaged power plants remain out of operation and civilians remain displaced from their homes due to mines because of the mines.
As a result, the economy also remains partially paralysed. On the front line, the military is responsible for mine clearance, while the mine clearance authority is responsible for major infrastructure.
Humanitarian mine clearance
In villages and fields, the focus is on so-called humanitarian mine clearance, experts explain.
In many cases, fields have to be scanned metre by metre with metal detectors after the machines have been used for the first time, said Markus Schindler. The 36-year-old works for FSD, a Swiss foundation for mine clearance.
It took mine sweepers several months to clear two football pitches in the Kharkiv region that had been mined, he explained. Every piece of shrapnel had to be removed to keep the players safe. Elsewhere, areas 10 times larger can be cleared in just a few weeks, however.
UNDP bond issue proposal
The UNDP has suggested that the Ukrainian government issues bonds that link mine clearance with the introduction of sustainable agricultural practices. The UNDP has suggested that proceeds from the bonds could be reinvested in mine clearance, among other things.
Ukraine estimated last year that a full clearance operation would cost €34 billion ($36.9 billion).
