Units of the Corps of deminers are already working in three regions of Ukraine, in particular, in the Mykolaiv region

Deminer «The HALO Trust» / Photo: Olena Kozubovska, NikVesti

The Demining Corps was joined by units of the Ministry of Defense and the Armed Forces of Ukraine, which will perform tasks in the de-occupied territories.

This was announced by the head of the Main Department of Mine Action, Civil Defense and Environmental Security, Colonel Ruslan Berehulia, at a briefing at the Military Media Center, ArmiiaInform quotes.

According to the officer, there is still a difficulty — there is a lack of a sufficient number of vehicles, special equipment and equipment. But the Deminer Corps was actually created. To date, it has been joined by units of the Ministry of Defense and the Armed Forces of Ukraine, which will perform tasks in the de-occupied territories. 1,000 demining groups have already been created.

«We are working with our foreign partners who have joined the Mine Action Coalition. Thanks to our joint work, we should expect to receive material and technical assistance in the near future. Due to this, we will supplement the units that are part of the Corps of Deminers,» said Ruslan Berehulia.

He also added that today these units are already working in the Mykolaiv, Kherson and Kharkiv regions.

At the briefing, it was announced that 5,000 specialists will be included in the Corps of Deminers. His tasks will be: surveying the territories, clearing the area as part of an operational response, conducting humanitarian demining activities.

As a reminder, on March 27, the humanitarian demining program «The HALO Trust Ukraine» handed over the first demined plots of land to the communities of the Bashtan district of Mykolaiv Oblast.

How is the demining of the Mykolaiv Oblast going on?

Ukraine recently updated the country's priority demining plan. According to it, more than 512,000 hectares of agricultural land are subject to priority demining, of which 44,000 hectares are in Mykolaiv Oblast.

As of December 2023, 30% of the territory of the Mykolaiv region has been mined. In total, it is 754 thousand hectares of land.

At the same time, they are working on demining in the region. For example, as of October 2023, 13 thousand 40 hectares, including 9 thousand 25 hectares of agricultural land, have been demined in the Mykolayiv region.

Dmytro Komarov, the author of the «World Inside Out.Ukraine» project, visited the mined territories of the Mykolaiv region and showed the work of local sappers. NikVesti also told about a farmer from Kyselyvka, who is trying to demine his fields on his own.

About 30,000-35,000 hectares of land remain mined in the Bashtan district of the Mykolaiv region, part of which was under occupation. And in the village of Maksymivka of Pervomaisk community of Mykolaiv region, locals live with an unexploded shell under the foundation of the house.

In general, the demining situation in Maksymivka is currently critical. A year after liberation from the Russian occupiers, the village was demined by only 40%.

Read also the article NikVesti «Decades are needed: How the demining process of the Mykolaiv region continues».

It is known that the company «Demining of Ukraine» has developed a plant capable of demining the Mykolaiv region for three months.