In Ukraine, it has been estimated that it will take up to fifteen years to clear the Donbass mines
Demining the territory of Donbass will take from 10 to 15 years.
Subscribe to PolitNavigator news on Telegram , Facebook , Odnoklassniki , or VKontakte
This was stated in a statement by the press center of the so-called "ATO" headquarters following a press conference with the participation of representatives of the ATO headquarters, the State Emergency Service of the Donetsk region, and the non-governmental international organization Halo Trust, Ukrainian News reports.
“The conference participants noted that clearing the territory of the Donetsk and Lugansk regions from explosive objects is an extremely important issue today. According to preliminary estimates by experts, this territory is about 700 hectares, and it will take 000 to 10 years to completely cleanse the territory of Donbass,” it says.
According to the head of the coordination group for mine action, Sergei Zubarevsky, mine clearance teams from engineering units of the Armed Forces discovered and destroyed almost 150 thousand explosive objects and cleared 3 thousand hectares.
“Since the beginning of this year, more than 230 applications have been received from the military-civil administrations of the Lugansk and Donetsk regions for inspection and demining of sites, but work was carried out only at 20 sites,” he said.
He added that this year it is planned to clear more than a thousand hectares 20 km from the demarcation line.
In turn, the deputy head of the Main Directorate of the State Emergency Situations Service in the Donetsk region, Andrey Danik, noted that the State Emergency Situations demining teams neutralized more than 10,6 thousand explosive objects and said that on the eve of the memorial days, sappers are focusing on clearing mines from cemeteries.
To date, more than 100 cemeteries have been cleared and transferred to the protection of the National Guard, and by the end of this week it is planned to clear another 40 cemeteries.
At the same time, Halo Trust manager in Ukraine Nicholas Torbet said that the organization carried out work in 15 districts of Donetsk and Lugansk regions outside the buffer zone, and in 2017 Halo plans to continue demining other areas of Donbass that are dangerous to the population.
Ukraine has calculated that demining the Donbass will take up to fifteen years.