On 24 February 2022 Russia initiated a large-scale military operation in Ukraine targeting all major cities in the northern, eastern and southern part of the country. The humanitarian impact of the ongoing conflict and the extensive use of explosive weapons in populated areas in Ukraine has been unparalleled in Europe since the Second World War. The war has displaced almost 14 million people from their homes, including 6.2 million Internally Displaced People (IDPs) and about 7.7 million refugees currently registered across Europe.
The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) has recorded 21,293 civilian casualties in the country. Since its early stages, the military invasion of Ukraine has been characterized by the widespread use of explosive weapons in populated areas, including reports of use of anti-personnel landmines, cluster munitions, long-range missiles and aerial bombings. To date there has been no systematic, wide-scale assessment of explosive ordnance contamination and what humanitarian impact they pose, but initial information indicates that the size of contamination and its impact is massive.
Country Programme
NPA deployed to the country in early May 2022 with the aim of establishing a Mine Action and Disarmament (MAD) programme, seeking to alleviate civilians’ suffering from the effects of landmines, cluster munitions and other explosive ordnance. In August 2022, NPA obtained its legal registration and received its first operational accreditation in February 2023. NPA is currently undertaking all necessary operational and administrative steps for the scale-up of the programme.
As of February 2023, NPA is successfully accredited with the National Mine Action Authority (NMAA) for non-technical survey (NTS) and explosive ordnance risk education (EORE) in order to start mine action activities in the country. NPA’s plans are focused on reducing the humanitarian impact of explosive ordnance and weapons through comprehensive mine action response, including NTS, technical survey (TS), clearance, and EORE. NPA has established field offices in Sumy and Mykolaiv Oblasts where mine action activities are currently being implemented or about to start.
Furthermore, NPA’s strategic approach will focus on strengthening the national mine action capacity both at the planning and strategic level as well as at the operational efficiency level.
NPA’s initial intervention in conflict-affected Ukraine has taken the form of material and equipment support to the State Emergency Services of Ukraine (SESU) with the provision of much-needed Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) equipment, vehicles, personal protective equipment, medical supplies and communication equipment.
In parallel, NPA are engaged with SESU in a capacity development project aimed at establishing a sustainable mine detection dog (MDD) capacity within SESU. Since August 2022, NPA and the Ukrainian Deminer’s Association (UDA) have been implementing a project for the dissemination of lifesaving, context-specific EORE messaging and conflict preparedness and protection (CPP) training to at-risk population in the conflict-affected Sumy, Kharkiv, Kyiv and Dnipro regions.
- Country office in Kyiv registered and operational from August 2022
- Partnership agreement signed with the State Emergency Service of Ukraine covering multiple mine action pillars
- Equipped ten SESU EOD/demining teams with technical and safety equipment for the conduct of their operations
- Provided CPP and EORE sessions for more than7,000 people in Kharkiv, Sumy, Dnipro and Kyiv regions in partnership with a local organization UDA
- Conducted a thorough mine detection dog needs assessment and established a capacity development project to build SESU’s MDD capacity in Ukraine
- 10 NTS/EORE trained in December 2022, and operational since mid-February 2023.
- Commence operations from the second field office and area in Mykolaiv Oblast.
- First six manual multi skilled operational teams trained and organizational accreditation received for mine clearance, EOD spot-tasks and battle area clearance (BAC)
- Continuation of EORE & CPP training through our local implementing partners
- Six MDDs and dog-handlers within SESU’s response capacity and eight MDDs and dog-handlers trained for the NPA programme.
- Provision of technical and safety equipment for 10 additional SESU EOD/demining teams.
