Ukraine will need $37 billion (35 billion euros) to remove mines across the country, the Ukrainian government warned on Wednesday, based on World Bank (WB) estimates.
“Russia leaves a deadly trail in its path,” Ukrainian Prime Minister Denis Shmigal denounced, referring to mines that Kiev accuses Russian forces of planting in the country during 19 months of war.
Shmigal described mines as “a weapon of war that remains active long after” troops have left the battlefield.
“And it doesn’t matter whether it’s a civilian, a soldier or a child,” he said during a forum on demining in Kiev, as quoted by the Ukrainian news agency Ukrinform.
Shmigal said Ukraine’s international partners know that some 174,000 square kilometers may already have been mined, an area that will take decades or even “hundreds of years” to be mined.
“According to World Bank estimates, more than $37 billion will be needed to develop the mining areas,” he said.
According to Shmigal, “the situation in the occupied territories is getting worse every day.”
“Unfortunately, the enemy is deliberately undermining our towns and villages, our territories, forests and fields, causing losses not only to the army, but also to thousands of civilians,” he said, according to the Spanish agency Europa Press.
So far, he said, more than 200,000 hectares of agricultural land out of the 470,000 hectares identified as priority have been inspected, while about 120,000 hectares can be returned to agricultural use.
The head of the Ukrainian government also said that it has already been possible to clean 18,000 kilometers of infrastructure and inspect more than 12,000 private homes to detect possible threats.
He also called on Kyiv’s partners to continue to assist Ukraine in demining and creating institutions and infrastructure to make cooperation in this area more effective.
Source: DN
