The Norwegian government is allocating an additional 200 million Norwegian kroner (about $18.5 million at the current exchange rate) for humanitarian demining in Ukraine, Norwegian Foreign Ministry State Secretary Eivind Vad Petersson has said.
“Since 2015, Norway has provided EUR 15 million in assistance through non-governmental organizations. Today, we are increasing our contribution by another 200 million kroner in additional demining assistance,” he said at the High Level International Donor Conference on Humanitarian Demining in Ukraine in Zagreb on Wednesday.
Vad Petersson also called for compliance with the Anti-Personnel Mine Ban Convention, adopted 25 years ago, expressing hope that Croatia would join it.
A statement on the Norwegian government’s website on Wednesday said that the widespread use of mines and cluster munitions in Ukraine has made it the most mined country in the world today, and that Norway will more than double its support for efforts to clear mines laid in Ukraine since the beginning of Russia’s brutal aggressive war.
It is noted that about 30% of Ukraine’s territory is currently littered with mines and unexploded ordnance, and demining is vital for Ukrainian farmers to grow crops.
“Russia’s military aggression on the territory of Ukraine affects not only Ukraine. It threatens food security around the world,” Foreign Minister Anniken Huitfeldt said in the release.
It is specified that Norway has previously provided NOK 164 million for demining activities since Russia launched a full-scale war against Ukraine in February 2022. The additional funds allocated under the Nansen Support Program for Ukraine will be channelled through existing demining organizations, including Norwegian People’s Aid, HALO Trust and the UN system.
Norway recalls that it has already provided more than NOK 4.5 billion in humanitarian aid to Ukraine and assistance to refugees in neighboring countries.
Earlier at the conference, Croatia, which organized the donor conference, announced the allocation of additional funding of EUR 5 million for humanitarian demining in Ukraine. Several other countries, including Spain, Slovakia, and Slovenia, announced at the conference that they would allocate additional funds for this purpose, but in these cases, the amounts were in the range of EUR0.5 million to EUR1.5 million.
According to a study conducted by the World Bank, the Ukrainian government, the European Commission, and the UN, the cost of humanitarian demining in the year after the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion was estimated at more than EUR34 billion out of the total cost of reconstruction and recovery of EUR383 billion. At the same time, the full extent of the contamination remains unclear due to the ongoing hostilities and occupation of the territory.
