In Donbas, 35,000 Hectares of Land Were Cleaned from Mines

During the demining of Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts, sappers cleaned 35,000 hectares and seized more than 450,000 various explosive devices.

This was announced at a panel discussion during the V International Conference on Civil-Military Cooperation by the Commander of the Joint Forces Serhiy Nayev.

According to him, since 2014, Ukraine has become one of the countries most contaminated by mines and explosives in the world.

“According to preliminary estimates, the area of ​​such districts is about 7,000 square km in the territory controlled by the government of Ukraine and approximately twice as much in the occupied territories of Donetsk and Luhansk regions,”  the commander emphasised.

In addition, he said that the Ukrainian military, together with the state authorities during the environmental protection, restored 1,705 houses and 1,754 km of road infrastructure. Gas, water and heat supply networks were restored in more than 300 settlements.

Nayev also said that in the Donbas during the first four years of occupation, 20,000 houses and industrial infrastructure were destroyed, killing about 10,000 people.

The commander of the Joint Forces Operation noted that since the beginning of this year, in the area of ​​the Joint Forces, the number of dead and wounded among the civilian population has decreased many times, but there are some cases of explosive devices.

It should be recalled that in early September, the Tripartite Contact Group agreed on the coordinates of 19 priority demining sites in Donbas. Another 20 sites are being demined as part of the construction of a new checkpoint.

Bohdan Marusyak