At the moment, Ukraine is the undisputed leader in the number of mined territories in the world: the figure reaches 30%. This includes not only land but also reservoirs and marine water areas. Complete demining requires specialists, finances, equipment, and time. The world is ready to help, but is it enough?
Mined Britain
To understand the scale of the tragedy, it is enough to compare the mined areas with the areas of such countries as Romania or Great Britain. More than 5 million hectares of Ukrainian agricultural land are not suitable for use for this reason.
How many specialists are needed?
In Ukraine, a base of demining specialists has already been formed, since this process has actually been going on from the first day of the war. There are currently 5 000 specialists, but if the work is carried out only by them, the process will take up to 30 years. That is why it is planned to involve specialists from other countries.
Terrible math
The need to eliminate explosive objects cannot be doubted, as evidenced by the figures. During the year of the full-scale invasion of Russia, 611 civilians were injured by mines. The same indicator, starting from 2014 in the east of Ukraine, amounted to an average of 180 people.
What explodes?
Most often, the following explosives pose a threat:
- anti-tank and anti-personnel mines;
- mini traps;
- mini-trip wires;
- cluster munitions;
- remains of unexploded shells.
Sometimes 2 500 such explosives were defused in just one day. Since February 24, more than 320 000 of them have been liquidated.
A sapper makes a mistake only once
Even highly qualified sappers often die during demining. This is due to the fact that there are certain explosive devices prohibited by the Geneva Convention throughout the civilized world. 164 countries, including Ukraine, signed it, while Russia did not. Therefore, it uses, for example, a prohibited jumping-out fragmentation mine, which reacts even when approaching it. At the same time, it jumps 1 m above the ground, explodes, and scatters fragments with a diameter of 16 m.
Billions buried in the ground
According to preliminary estimates, demining will cost 37 billion USD. The process is expensive, because it requires special equipment, and qualifications, and consists of several stages:
- survey of the territory;
- disposal of explosives;
- soil cleaning after it.
For farmers, there is free humanitarian demining with the financial support of foreign donors. However, there is a queue for it, and you cannot wait in the agriculture sector – a lost season means bankruptcy. That is why the business of “black sappers” is spreading in Ukraine. Surveying 1 hectare of land costs 5 000 UAH on average, and demining costs from 1 to 3 000 USD per hectare.
Harvesting from mined Ukrainian lands could feed more than 80 million people in the world.
