"Currently, there is no planned demining; it was until 2022. Currently, all our actions are extraordinary and urgent. First of all, infrastructure facilities that provide people's lives need demining," said the head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs.
According to him, the most considerable demand of people is security. It includes the presence of the police, rescuers, and pyrotechnicians: "Today, more than 60% of all personnel of the National Police and Emergency Services are located in the east and south of our country. The de-occupied territories of the Kharkiv Region, Donetsk Region, and Kherson Region need our efforts the most. More than 64,000 hectares were demined during this time in the de-occupied territories."
Denys Monastyrsky emphasized that every hour counts for the restoration of electric lighting. That is why large teams work. Currently, the number of pyrotechnicians is increasing. Complete demining will take years. It takes up to a month of work to clean one settlement. Today, pyrotechnicians are the first to enter the police and work 24/7.
"Over 190,000 explosive items were found in the de-occupied territories. We note that the Kharkiv region is more polluted than the Kyiv, Chernihiv, and Sumy regions combined. This is extremely dense shell contamination due to combat operations and mines. They mined everything. Many vile traps are made for pyrotechnicians. In fact, we have tragic incidents with pyrotechnics every week," the Minister said.
He said that experts from international organizations simultaneously teach and learn from our specialists because the number of new traps used by the Russians is much greater.
"We are working at an extraordinary pace and comparing our colleagues from international organizations who come to us to help to demine, our pyrotechnicians of the State Emergency Service work 100 times faster. These are real measurements," said the head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs.
He also emphasized that international aid is provided in two directions: the first is humanitarian aid (pyrotechnic equipment, protective suits, mechanized demining machines and cars for pyrotechnicians, works for the disposal of ammunition, etc.), the second is physical assistance from international organizations in clearing Ukrainian mines territory.
At the end, the Minister assured: "More than 176,000 square meters remain contaminated. This is the size of an average European country. Now, this is a danger that everyone should be aware of. Security classes are currently being created in all Ukrainian schools, especially in central Ukraine and the de-occupied territories. Every adult and every child should know and distinguish elementary explosive objects and understand what to do in case of detection of such objects. This is vitally necessary to prevent tragic incidents among the population."
