Calculating environmental damage due to hostilities is impossible without demining, so the development of the humanitarian demining market is a priority today. Minister of Environmental Protection and Natural Resources of Ukraine Ruslan Strylets discussed this and the prospects of demining in Ukraine during his speech at the International Conference on Humanitarian Demining in Baku.
"Due to Russian armed aggression, mined territories are our pain for many years to come. We currently have 156,000 km² of mined territory in Ukraine. Over 57 billion euros of environmental damage has already been accounted for. War has affected 30,000 km² of forests, with 4,500 km² being mined. Potential mines cover 12,000 km² of our reserve territories. They will be demined last. This means we are losing our biodiversity due to mines," emphasized Ruslan Strylets.
He stated that demining is an essential component of calculating environmental damage. Without it, these calculations are impossible. This is one of the key components of Point 8 of Volodymyr Zelensky's Peace Formula regarding environmental security.
"Ukraine's achievements in the humanitarian demining market are significant. At the beginning of 2023, we had no demining machines. There were only six humanitarian demining operators. Now, over 60 machines are operational, with 36 operators. The number of sappers has increased from 1,500 to 4,500. Our developers actively use UAVs with sensor technologies to search for explosive objects. Ukraine can now identify potentially contaminated areas using satellite imagery and neural networks," noted Ruslan Strylets.
Thanks to modern technologies, Ukrainian scientists have analyzed the damage to the soils of the Kharkiv region due to explosions, amounting to over 37 billion UAH. In 2023, we returned 18,000 km² of territory to use, including 750 km² of forests.
"I thank Yuliia Svyrydenko for her active efforts in solving demining problems in Ukraine and fruitful cooperation within Point 8. I appreciate the openness and readiness for cooperation of the Minister of Ecology of Azerbaijan Mukhtar Babayev and the Ambassador of Azerbaijan to Ukraine Seimur Mardaliyev. We have many events ahead for cooperation. We are looking forward to the Peace Summit on June 15-16 in Switzerland and the 29th Climate Summit, which will be held in Baku this year. We are doing everything possible to unite the world around this global goal," concluded Ruslan Strylets.
