«The situation is critical»: only 40% of the territory was demined in the de-occupied Maksymivka in the Mykolaiv Oblast during the year

The village of Maksymivka in Mykolaiv Oblast was demined by only 40% a year after its liberation from the Russian occupiers.

Ivan Volko, head of the Kiselyivka community, told NikVesti about this.

According to him, the situation with demining is critical, especially for agricultural lands. From time to time, residents of Maksymivka find enemy ammunition left by the Russian army.

— Currently, demining is still taking place, as there were very serious combat operations here, only 40% of the mines have been demined. There was a lot of ammunition left in sheds, basements, and people's houses. These ammunitions were taken away. But there are still a lot of mines and shells that we cannot see. Sometimes you just walk and come across unexploded explosives from a cluster munition. There is still work and work to be done on demining, — said Ivan Volko.

Earlier, at a briefing, the head of the Pervomaisk settlement community, which includes Maksymivka, said that half of the community's total land was contaminated with ammunition.

— Out of the total amount of about 38,000 hectares, about half was contaminated with explosive objects. We are currently cooperating with the bodies of the State Emergency Service, the National Guard, the National Police, with humanitarian demining in order to demine most of the land this year, — he said.

According to Maksym Korovai, the demining situation in the agricultural sector is particularly difficult, which does not give farmers the opportunity to sow land and harvest crops.

— In fact, 4 villages that were on the front line were heavily hit. And those agricultural lands, which are located on the territory of Partizanske and Kyselivka Districts are significantly contaminated with explosive objects, — he said.

As Ivan Volko, the head of the Kyselivka commynoty, noted, in the village of Maksimivka, local farmers are trying to clear agricultural land by their own efforts.

— The situation on agricultural land is very critical, there has never been such demining of agricultural land. The farmers themselves go in, look where everything is lying, collect it, take it to the edge and call sappers. We wrote letters to the State Emergency Service for the demining of allotments and agricultural lands, but there are simply not enough sappers, they do not have enough opportunities, — said Ivan Volko.

Read about how the local residents of Maksymivka live today in the article NikVesti «The shell is still lying under the house»: how the destroyed village of Maksymivka has changed a year after the occupation."