Support to Environmental Rehabilitation with Focus on Building National Humanitarian Mine Action Capacities of Ukraine

Getting back to normal life in the war-affected communities is often a dangerous endeavor. Remnants of a car in Lypivka near Makariv remind of a tragedy that happened when an electricity repair team encountered an anti-vehicle mine.

(Andrii Dziubenko/OSCE) Photo details

Description

Mines, unexploded bombs, projectiles and rockets, abandoned munitions and other explosive items pose a deadly threat to people, even decades after military actions are over. Contamination by these remnants of war is a key challenge for communities to overcome in order get their lives back to normal. Economic and environmental losses are high, as lands cannot be used for agriculture, and reconstruction efforts are slow and dangerous.

The OSCE has been helping Ukraine deal with mine threats since 2007, when the main problem was caused by the remnants from World Wars I and II, and military accidents related to Soviet legacy. From 2014, military actions in Donbas contaminated vast areas in the east of the country. Improvised Explosive Devices (IED) and antipersonnel mines were reported to be used in populated areas and close to civilian infrastructure. The war from February 2022 worsened the situation drastically, affecting all of Ukraine’s regions.

To contribute to the economic and environmental recovery, with this project the OSCE assists Ukraine’s authorities in building a humanitarian mine action system and helps to strengthen the capacities of relevant agencies to clear contaminated lands.

The project assists the National Mine Action Authority in establishing a functional mine action system, helps build the operational capacities of the Mine Action Centre and Humanitarian Demining Centre to conduct environmentally safe humanitarian demining operations in a systemic way, provides training opportunities and equipment to personnel, and shares expertise and international best practices.

This effort is part of the OSCE Secretariat Extra-Budgetary Support Programme for Ukraine implemented with contributions from the Organization's participating States; see full list of the Programme's donors.