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:

• 17 NTS/EORE teams in Sumy, Mykolaiv and Kherson regions to conduct NTS and EORE
• 16 multi-task clearance teams in Mykolaiv region to conduct technical survey and clearance
• 8 mine-detection dogs and handlers in Mykolaiv region to support the clearance teams
  

NPA is in the process of obtaining accreditation for the use of mechanical assets, expected to be finalized by March 2024. Once the mechanical accreditation is secured, NPA’s clearance teams in Ukraine will have access to the full mine action toolbox, which will significantly increase their operational efficiency and effectiveness.