This year, more than 200,000 hectares of Ukrainian agricultural lands were demined

Since the beginning of the year, thanks to the work of the pyrotechnic units of state bodies and non-governmental operators, more than 200,000 hectares of agricultural land have been returned to use.

This was reported to the Ministry of Economy of Ukraine.

"Our pyrotechnics - units of the State Emergency Service, State Security Service, non-governmental operators of mine countermeasures demonstrate very good results. Even now, in winter, when the weather, to put it mildly, does not favor work in the fields, 3,000 to 5,000 hectares of agricultural land are surveyed every week. To date, of the 470,000 hectares that we planned to survey and, if necessary, clear and demine as a matter of priority, more than 200,000 hectares have already been returned to farmers for economic exploitation," the First Vice Prime Minister - Minister of Economy noted on this occasion. Yulia Svyridenko of Ukraine.

She also emphasized that the government and international partners are working on strengthening the capabilities of operators and strategic planning of the work of all relevant parties in the field of mine action for the next 10 years. According to her, the ultimate goal is to return to safe use up to 80% of the country's territories, which are currently considered potentially contaminated.

In particular, 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 them, about 205,000 hectares have been returned to operation. More than 5,000 ha were surveyed last week. The largest - 3.8 thousand hectares - in the Kherson region.

We will remind that earlier the Deputy Spokesman of the UN Secretary General, Farhad Gak, announced the start of a project in Ukraine to clean agricultural land from explosive objects, in particular mines. This project is implemented by the World Food Program of the United Nations, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and the Swiss Mine Action Fund. The goal of the project is to support small farmers and rural families, the most affected by hostilities. The program has already been launched in the Kharkiv region and is planned to be extended to Kherson region and Mykolaiv region. The UN representative added that they plan to support farmers with plots of land up to 300 hectares, as well as rural families that grow food for themselves. The initiators claim that the program will help return land to use, as well as restore agricultural production in Ukraine. It is known that Ukraine aims to return 80% of potentially contaminated land to productive use within 10 years.

As reported in the press service of the Ministry of Economy of Ukraine, this requires "clear coordination between all participants in the process, focus and innovative approaches." According to available estimates, 90% of the work in Ukraine will be related to the release of land and only about 10% - to demining. Therefore, it is suggested to identify slightly polluted or non-polluted lands among potentially polluted ones and quickly return them to use. Demining of areas with a high density of pollution will be delayed. This approach will make it possible to rationally use resources and quickly return significant areas to productive use.