Ukraine

Ukraine has been heavily affected by armed conflict since 2014 following Russia’s annexation of Crimea. On 24 February 2022, Russia initiated a large-scale military operation in Ukraine targeting all major cities in the eastern, southern and central part of the country. Since its early stages, the full-scale invasion of Ukraine has been characterized by the widespread use of explosive weapons in populated areas, including landmines, cluster munitions 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 mine contamination is “massive”, while the cluster munitions remnants contamination is estimated to be “large”.

NPA Mine Action and Disarmament Programme in Ukraine

NPA deployed to Ukraine in May 2022 with the aim of establishing a mine action programme, seeking to alleviate civilians’ suffering from the effects of landmines, cluster munitions and other explosive ordnance. From the initial deployment to the country NPA focused on supporting the main national mine action operator; the State Emergency Services of Ukraine (SESU), and in parallel established its own mine action operational capacities.

NPA’s collaboration with and support of SESU has taken different forms, including equipping 20 of their demining teams, and delivering and training six mine-detection dogs and their handlers for humanitarian demining operations. Further trainings and capacity development are ongoing, mostly focusing on strengthening the use of dogs in demining operations.

Following a successful process of legal registration and obtaining the necessary accreditations, NPA started directly implementing mine action activities from February 2023 onwards. The programme currently deploys:

• 16 non-technical survey teams in Sumy, Mykolaiv and Kherson regions to conduct non-technical survey and explosive ordnance risk education
• 34 manual clearance teams in Mykolaiv and Kherson regions to conduct technical survey and clearance
• 12 mine-detection dogs (with five more on the way) and handlers in Mykolaiv and Kherson regions to conduct technical survey and clearance
• 13 mechanical assets (seven ground preparation machines and six vegetation cutters) in Mykolaiv and Kherson regions to support demining operations

In April 2024, NPA received formal accreditation for the use of mechanical assets in demining operations, and the programme immediately deployed machines across its operational areas to support the clearance teams. After having already received formal accreditations for conducting manual technical survey and clearance (in June 2023), and the use of mine-detection dogs in demining operations (in November 2023), the accreditation and deployment of mechanical assets completes the mine action toolbox for the Ukraine programme. An immediate and significant increase in operational efficiency and outputs was reported by operational staff following the deployment of the mechanical assets. NPA is currently the only international organisation in Ukraine accredited for the full mine action toolbox consisting of manual demining teams, mine-detection dogs, and mechanical assets.