The US will allocate $35 million for demining in Ukraine in 2025
22 October, 2024 Illustrative depiction of the demining process. Photo from open sources The United States will allocate £35 million in 2025 as part of international support for humanitarian demining in Ukraine.
The Main Department of Mine Action of Civil Protection and Environmental Safety announced this. The annual International Donor Conference Ukraine Mine Action Conference 2024 (UMAC-2024) was held in Lausanne, Switzerland. The main goal of the event was to establish a sustainable dialogue with international partners to effectively clear Ukraine's territory of explosive hazards.
Viola Amgerd, President of Switzerland, and Denys Shmyhal, Prime Minister of Ukraine, opened the conference. Representatives of 54 countries, the European Commission, NATO, the OSCE, the UN, and other international organizations attended the event.
International donor conference Ukraine Mine Action Conference 2024 (UMAC-2024). October 17-18, 2024.
Photo: Department of Mine Action of Civil Protection and Environmental Safety
In particular, the United States promised to allocate £35 million for demining in Ukraine in 2025. The Ukrainian delegation held talks with the leadership of the American company Tetra Tech, Ukraine's main partner in implementing the U.S. State Department's project to clear Ukrainian territory of explosive ordnance.
Therefore, Tetra Tech will continue to provide Ukraine with assistance in the form of specialized demining equipment, personal protective equipment, and training for demining specialists. The conference also presented ways to implement the Operational Plan for 2024-2026 within the framework of the Ukrainian National Mine Action Strategy for the period up to 2033. It should be noted that currently, 139 thousand km2 of Ukraine's territory, including 14 thousand km2 of water area, is contaminated with explosives.
A sapper with a personal demining kit.
2024. Photo: Ministry of Defense of Ukraine
"Mykolaiv, Kherson, and Kharkiv regions remain the most contaminated today. The danger created by explosives affects the lives of 6 million Ukrainians.
In the de-occupied territories alone, the Secretariat of the National Authority recorded 727 incidents in which 1052 people were injured, 75% of which were mine-related.
And a very terrible number: 16 of them are children who died," Ruslan Berehulyana, Head of the Main Department of Mine Action, reported.
During the conference, 42 countries supported the Lausanne Call to Action for humanitarian demining in Ukraine, committing to rapidly restoring Ukrainian agricultural land and facilitating the reintegration of victims.