Ukraine most mined country in the world: 30% dangerous territory — GLOBSEC

About 30% of Ukraine's territory (174,000 sq km) will need to be cleared of mines and unexploded ordnance after the end of the war, making the country "the largest mined territory in the world", according to the report "Walking on Fire: Demining in Ukraine" of the analytical center GLOBSEC.

The authors of the report note that Ukraine set a sad world record for the area of land mined and contaminated by unexploded ordnance, "surpassing such former frontrunners as Afghanistan and Syria."

GLOBSEC states that the Russian occupiers are "infamously creative" in setting mine-traps and plant "victimactivated devices on animals, dead-bodies, as well as double and even triple booby-traps on roads, fields and forests."

GLOBSEC analysts called the task of post-war demining of Ukraine "difficult, expensive and almost impossible."

They consider the previous rates of demining to be "catastrophically slow" — for example, in the Kyiv-controlled territories of Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts from 2015 to 2021, only about 6% of potentially dangerous areas were cleared of mines and ammunition, which is about 64 square kilometers per year.

The report emphasizes that it is not yet possible to give a final assessment of this problem, since hostilities continue and about 18% of the territory of Ukraine remains under Russian occupation.

On December 9, the United States announced that it expects to form and finance the work of 100 teams for demining in Ukraine.

On March 22, 2023, it was reported that sappers of the Ukrainian Armed Forces began training in Lithuania at international courses on demining.

On April 22, the Minister of Agrarian Policy, Mykola Solskyi, said that Ukraine needs the help of partners, as it will be clearing agricultural lands "for more than 20 years" on its own.