Clearing Territories From Mines Will Take Many Years – Interior Ministry

Demining Ukrainian territory after a full-scale Russian invasion will take many years.

This was announced by First Deputy Head of the Interior Ministry Yevhen Yenin in an interview for RBC-Ukraine.

Thus, Yenin said that before the Russian invasion, Ukraine ranked fifth in the world in terms of the number of victims of incidents involving anti-personnel mines and ammunition that did not explode.

“Our country was also among the top three “leaders” in terms of the number of incidents caused by anti-vehicle mines. And all this is the result of hostilities in eastern Ukraine that began in 2014,” said Yenin.

He added that from April 2014 to 2021, more than 1,000 people in Ukraine were killed or injured by mines.

"The intensity with which the Russians "sow" our territories with various kinds of projectiles, bombs and explosives significantly exceed what we saw during conflicts in other European regions in the 90s and early 2000s," said the first deputy head of the Interior Ministry.

He stressed that no one can guarantee the issue of a full-fledged safe return and it will be dangerous for many years to come.

"But we are making every effort to minimize the risks. We are attracting international partners and training an additional number of explosives technicians. New technologies and our people themselves are also helping in this," Yenin emphasized.

According to him, the Ministry of Internal Affairs has launched a mobile application "Demining Ukraine".

"There you can find a suspicious object, take a picture of it, shoot a video, send geolocation, and bomb experts will be sent there within a few hours. In the first week, we received more than 2,000 applications," he added.

As Ukrainian News Agency reported, the demining of roads in Kyiv region has been fully completed.

Oleg Bondar, head of the Department for the Organization of Pyrotechnic Works and Humanitarian Demining of the State Emergency Service, said that demining the territory of Ukraine could take from 5 to 10 years.