What will it take to demine Ukraine, the world’s largest minefield?

After more than two and a half years of Russia’s all-out invasion, Ukraine is now the most mined country in the world.

According to the Ukrainian Association of Humanitarian Demining, completely demining Ukraine’s territory could take up to 30 years.

The association states that over 156,000 square kilometres are potentially dangerous, comprising a third of the country — the size of the entire country of Greece or twice the territory of the Czech Republic.

“One day of war is about 30 days of demining. In the example of the city of Irpin, this is true,” Yakiv Hanul, the head of the pyrotechnic department in Irpin in Kyiv region, told Euronews.

Not all mines and unexploded devices can be identified immediately, he added, further complicating any effort to map and remove them.

“Some mines or unexploded shells are located in private areas. If there are no signs that something is there, no one goes in, unless the residents or owners make a call,” Hanul explained.

“There are shells that could have entered water surfaces — lakes, rivers, swamps. Such shells are also not immediately detected. That’s why, probably, one day of war is 30 days of demining — it’s true, and regardless, some part will still remain in the soil.”

The World Bank estimates the total cost of removing the devices to be around €34 billion, and more than 10,000 experts will be required to carry out the work. As of now, Ukraine only has about 3,000 sappers capable of handling mines and unexploded ordnance.

The State Emergency Service of Ukraine conducts special training programmes, including training on how to identify dangerous explosive devices.

Nataliia Kirkina is one of the programme’s participants. The retired police captain from Sievierodonetsk in the Luhansk region, she enrolled in the programme when she returned to Irpin after Ukrainian forces pushed Russian soldiers out of the Kyiv region.

“When I was a child, my father accidentally found a fuse from a grenade from the Second World War. It exploded in his hands. He miraculously survived,” Kirkina told Euronews.

“I didn’t want my children to go through the same thing. So I resigned from the National Police and took training to become an explosive ordnance identifier.”

Training sappers today to make tomorrow safer

Before 2022, only men could work as explosive ordnance disposal operators in Ukraine, but when Ukrainian men went to the frontlines, the profession opened up for women, who are increasingly enrolling in training programmes at home and abroad.

One of the schools is MAT Kosovo, where there is a special programme for Ukrainian women.

Sir Ben Remfrey, Managing Director at Praedium Consulting Malta and MAT Kosovo, told Euronews the School is in negotiations with UN Women for a project to train many more women in 2025/6.

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Over 400 Ukrainians have already been trained at the facility in Peja in western Kosovo. There, they learn unique skills according to the International Mine Action Standards taught in their native language, since MAT Kosovo translated all of its courses into Ukrainian.  

The school’s managing director says there is no one-size-fits-all training approach.

“The training focuses on the type of operational roles they will have when they return to Ukraine and how they would conduct operations themselves as part of the team or leading the team,” Remfrey said. 

“The threats posed have been carefully studied and the training adapted to that and also evolving threats as the war continues and as areas are liberated then the type of threat changes, from conventional munitions disposal, to, say, that of ‘booby traps’ and also improvised devices.”

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He also explained why it is important to start the demining as soon as possible: “Displaced people will return home as soon as they can, those people who worked the land will want to work the land again, they want to live in their former homes and travel as they once did in safety — that’s why the land needs to be subject to clearance and proper land release to those communities as soon as possible.”

Saving the lives of deminers with robots

Demining is usually broken down into three types: operational, military and humanitarian.

Operational demining is carried out in case of emergency by the State Emergency Service, police sappers and specialists of the State Special Transport Service.

Military demining is done by soldiers to clear a path so that the military can advance during a conflict. In this case, mines are cleared only if they block strategic routes necessary for the advance or retreat of soldiers in war.

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The main goal of humanitarian demining is the planned clearance of land so that civilians can return to their homes and go about their daily activities without endangering their lives and health.

The goal of humanitarian demining is to restore peace and security at the community level. And to help the emergency services and save the lives of explosive ordnance specialists, Ukraine is increasingly using ground-based robotic systems.

UNITED24, the official fundraising platform created under the initiative of President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, is raising funds for these systems, saying that the use of ground robots significantly increases the demining speed and guarantees absolute safety of the EOD operator.

“The operator can be located at a distance of up to 3 kilometres from the deminer, which guarantees complete safety and the ability to clear up to 100 square meters per day, which is 10 times more than the demining capabilities of a sapper,” drones developer Taras Ostapchuk said.

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However, these are just the calculations for the territories that have already been liberated by Ukrainian forces. An even bigger problem will be demining the places where heavy fighting has been going on for a very long time, once they have been freed of Russian troops’ presence.

“There are areas in the Donetsk region where neither we nor the enemy have advanced since the start of the full-scale war,” Hanul said.

“There, fighting in these already destroyed landings has been going on for almost three years. There are millions of pieces of debris and unexploded ordnance there.”