Austria will allocate EUR5 million to Ukraine for farmland clearance and EUR2 million to support the Grain from Ukraine program amid a visit by Austrian Foreign Ministry chief Beate Meinl-Reisinger to Kiev on Friday, Die Presse reported.
“For Meinl-Reisinger, the trip to Kiev is the ‘first real trip abroad’ in her new position, as Brussels, which she visited last week, is not really a visit to another country for her,” the publication wrote.
The European media outlet added that the Austrian foreign minister’s luggage includes a check for EUR5m to help demining agricultural land and EUR2m to supply Ukrainian grain to Middle Eastern countries that need it.
Ukrainian veterans will be able to undergo training in humanitarian demining in Serbia, the Ministry of Veterans Affairs has announced.
“The training will provide war veterans with knowledge of the intricacies of demining, familiarization with national standards of mine action, etc. During the training, war veterans will be able to acquire the necessary skills and certification, which will open up new career opportunities for them,” the ministry said in a statement following a meeting between Deputy Minister Yulia Kyrylova and Serbian Ambassador to Ukraine Andon Sapundji and representatives of the Serbian Demining Center.
It is noted that at the same time, such an initiative will help strengthen the national demining system, as experienced specialists will be able to work on the security of the liberated territories.
In addition, the Ministry of Veterans and the Mine Action Center of Serbia agreed to further establish cooperation in the training of demining specialists among war veterans.
Ukraine’s largest mobile operator Kyivstar and one of the largest volunteer foundations “Come Back Alive” have accumulated UAH 54.8 million as part of the fundraising for demining of Ukraine’s territories “We Live Here 2.0”.
“Demining of territories remains a critical issue to restore safe life in Ukraine. We plan to close the urgent needs of demining units to the amount of UAH 100 million, providing them with modern Ukrainian equipment,” Taras Chmut, director of the ‘Back Alive’ fund, was quoted as saying in a press release on Tuesday.
Kyivstar clarified that UAH 17.8 million of the mentioned amount was collected at the expense of subscribers who connected the charitable Superpower “Aid to the AFU” or SMS-subscription.
To support the collection, directly the mobile operator transferred 30 million UAH of its own funds.
“We are grateful to everyone who supported the initiative and made a contribution to demining the country, our goal is 100 million UAH. We call on all those who are not indifferent to join the initiative and support the sappers”, – commented CEO of ‘Kyivstar’ Alexander Komarov.
It is noted that the collected funds will be used to provide sappers of the AFU Support Force with Ukrainian-made robotic complexes, transportation and communications.
According to him, the collection includes the transfer of 16 reconnaissance and logistics robotic complexes “Tarakan” (64 vehicles), 8 robotic complexes “Termit” (32 vehicles), 28 vehicles, 4 maintenance workshops, 28 REB vehicles, 100 radios of various types, 1 Vampire drone with thermal imaging cameras for remote demining, as well as 96 drones of various types for sappers’ awareness and related equipment.
It is specified that also the first Ukrainian superpop for dog and cat owners – Bubibo – joined the collection, which within the framework of the project collects UAH 1 million and attracts cats and dogs to support the deminers.
Swiss company LLC Global Clearance Solutions Ukraine will join the demining of territories in Kyiv region, the press service of the Kyiv Regional Military Administration (KOVA) reports.
As reported, the relevant Memorandum was signed by the head of KOVA Ruslan Kravchenko and the CEO of the Swiss company “LLC Global Clearance Solutions Ukraine” Dmitry Salimonov. This is a company by engineering and production facilities in Germany and representative offices around the world.
“After the fighting in the de-occupied territories of Kyivshchyna, there are a lot of explosive objects left. There are great dangers for the civilian population. Specialists of the State Emergency Situations Service continue demining works, but exclusively the forces of Ukrainian specialists and budget funds are not enough. Therefore, we attract certified operators, as well as funding from international partners, so that demining does not stretch for many years. Another important issue is the proper amount of professional equipment,” Kravchenko explained.
It is noted that the Swiss company provides a wide range of mine action assistance, in particular project management, consulting, survey and cleanup, capacity building, and training.
One of the world leaders in the field of robotic systems for humanitarian demining, the Croatian company DOK-ING, has opened an office in Kyiv, which will help coordinate mine action efforts between Ukraine and Croatia, First Vice Prime Minister and Minister of Economy Yulia Svyrydenko said during the opening ceremony.
“We highly appreciate the support provided by Croatia to Ukraine. There are 45 Croatian DOK-ING demining machines currently operating in Ukraine, which have helped clear over a thousand hectares of Ukrainian land. I hope that the opening of the office in Kyiv will be the beginning of even closer cooperation, and our sappers will be able to learn in Ukraine how to operate and maintain these machines,” the press service of the Ministry of Economy quoted her as saying.
The Ministry of Economy noted that Ukraine is one of the key users of DOK-ING demining machines. The State Emergency Service (SES) uses DOK-ING equipment the most. Its fleet includes 10 MV-4 light demining vehicles and 14 MV-10 heavy demining vehicles. Croatian demining machines are also used by the State Special Transport Service (SSTS), humanitarian demining operators and units of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
Of the 45 DOK-ING machines operating in Ukraine, 8 are manufactured at a Ukrainian plant that is a partner of the Croatian company.
“It is very important for us that some of the DOK-ING equipment is manufactured in Ukraine, as it means new jobs and additional budget revenues and support for the economy. In addition, manufacturing equipment in Ukraine reduces delivery time and facilitates logistics when repairs are needed. All of this ultimately accelerates the pace of demining and saves millions of lives,” Svyrydenko added.
The Ukrainian company A3TECH carries out large-scale assembly of DOK-ING demining machines with partial localization: part of the working body is already produced in Ukraine and by the end of the year the company is ready to increase the level of its localization to 100%. In 2024, the company produced eight localized MV-10 heavy demining machines, six of which have already been handed over to the SES.
DOK-ING produces both light and heavy robotic demining and explosive ordnance disposal machines. Due to their low profile and robust design, these vehicles are resistant to anti-personnel mines and unexploded ordnance detonations and can withstand an anti-tank mine explosion. DOK-ING vehicles are controlled by a remote control with a range of up to 1500 meters.
Currently, already 30 thousand square kilometers of de-occupied territories of Ukraine are recognized as such, which do not contain evidence of contamination by explosive objects, it is more than 17% of the preliminary assessment of contamination, reported in the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine.
“Today, thanks to our joint work, the area of contaminated territories has already decreased by 30 thousand square kilometers. This means that in these territories were not found or were neutralized detected explosive objects,” – said the head of the Main Department of mine action, civil protection and environmental safety of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, Colonel Ruslan Beregulia.
He also emphasized that now the most contaminated remain Kherson, Kharkiv and Mykolayiv regions, where more than 50% of all incidents with explosive objects among civilians have occurred.
According to the colonel, while carrying out demining activities, a comprehensive approach is applied, which, among other things, provides for chemical analysis of soils of agricultural lands for the presence of hazardous substances.
The head of the Main Department of Mine Action also noted that now 78 mechanized demining vehicles of both domestic and foreign production are used for demining of de-occupied territories from explosive objects by demining groups of security and defense forces, as well as by mine action operators.
The ministry recalled that initially the area of potentially explosive contaminated de-occupied territories in Ukraine was estimated at 174 thousand square kilometers, of which 14 thousand square kilometers are water areas.
