Business discussed issues related to humanitarian demining in Ukraine

02/ 10/ 2023

Today, the European Business Association hosted a meeting with Deputy Minister of Economy Ihor Bezkaravainyi on humanitarian demining in Ukraine. The discussion took place on the platform of the EBA Business Security and Protection Committee. Mr. Bezkaravainyi informed about some statistics in the context of demining. In particular, today 174 thousand square kilometers is a potentially contaminated area, but it is still important to survey the territories for accuracy. The country has 300 demining groups (both governmental and non-governmental) and about 2.5 thousand deminers are constantly working on humanitarian demining. In addition, the country has about 30 demining vehicles, of which almost 25 are found in the fields. 18 thousand square kilometers of infrastructure (roads, railways, etc.) have already been cleared. Over the entire period, about 23 thousand reports of mines were received and 13 thousand explosive devices were removed. It is worth noting that almost 150 thousand hectares of territory have already been returned after inspection - however, this does not mean that all the territories were mined (about 70% were not contaminated). The ambitious goal for the next 10 years is to return about 80% of productive land. At the same time, the business was also interested in the issues of certification and launching the work of companies engaged in demining. Currently, there is still no procedure for recognizing a European certificate (which must be verified by a company to provide such a service) in Ukraine. That is, a company that wants to work in Ukraine must obtain the appropriate certificate in Ukraine. At the same time, there are plans to develop such a recognition mechanism. However, it is first necessary to determine what such a certificate should look like, what it must contain, etc. In addition, for each type of equipment, the Ministry of Economy is starting to study global certification practices (because each type of equipment requires separate certification), international guidelines, as there is an assumption that all processes have already been developed, they just need to be identified and implemented in Ukraine. Among other things, there are plans to develop professional standards for sappers and deminers, so that the country can officially have professions that can engage in humanitarian demining and officially recognize such qualifications. This issue is also relevant because there is currently only one center in Ukraine that conducts a 4-month course and trains demining specialists. Therefore, this educational area should be developed and the number of specialists who can be trained should be increased. For its part, the EBA Committee has both proposals for certification mechanisms and for the procedure for recognizing qualifications. It was agreed to share these proposals with the Ministry. We sincerely thank Mr. Bezkaravainyi for the meeting and look forward to continuing the dialogue!

Mr. Bezkaravainyi informed about some statistics in the context of demining. In particular, today 174 thousand square kilometers is a potentially contaminated area, but it is still important to survey the territories for accuracy. The country has 300 demining groups (both governmental and non-governmental) and about 2.5 thousand deminers are constantly working on humanitarian demining. In addition, the country has about 30 demining vehicles, of which almost 25 are found in the fields. 18 thousand square kilometers of infrastructure (roads, railways, etc.) have already been cleared. Over the entire period, about 23 thousand reports of mines were received and 13 thousand explosive devices were removed. It is worth noting that almost 150 thousand hectares of territory have already been returned after inspection – however, this does not mean that all the territories were mined (about 70% were not contaminated). The ambitious goal for the next 10 years is to return about 80% of productive land.

At the same time, the business was also interested in the issues of certification and launching the work of companies engaged in demining. Currently, there is still no procedure for recognizing a European certificate (which must be verified by a company to provide such a service) in Ukraine. That is, a company that wants to work in Ukraine must obtain the appropriate certificate in Ukraine. At the same time, there are plans to develop such a recognition mechanism. However, it is first necessary to determine what such a certificate should look like, what it must contain, etc. In addition, for each type of equipment, the Ministry of Economy is starting to study global certification practices (because each type of equipment requires separate certification), international guidelines, as there is an assumption that all processes have already been developed, they just need to be identified and implemented in Ukraine.

Among other things, there are plans to develop professional standards for sappers and deminers, so that the country can officially have professions that can engage in humanitarian demining and officially recognize such qualifications. This issue is also relevant because there is currently only one center in Ukraine that conducts a 4-month course and trains demining specialists. Therefore, this educational area should be developed and the number of specialists who can be trained should be increased.

For its part, the EBA Committee has both proposals for certification mechanisms and for the procedure for recognizing qualifications. It was agreed to share these proposals with the Ministry.

We sincerely thank Mr. Bezkaravainyi for the meeting and look forward to continuing the dialogue!