Foreign aid Freeing Ukraine from mines "ambitious, but feasible"

Ukraine wants to clear four-fifths of its contaminated territory of mines by 2033. "That's ambitious, but feasible," says Tobias Privitelli, Director of the Geneva International Center for Humanitarian Demining, in an interview with Keystone-SDA.

His organization, one of the three international centers in Geneva funded by the Swiss Confederation, has been assisting the Ukrainian authorities in drawing up a three-year mine action plan. To achieve the goals, the "right technologies" are needed, Privitelli said on the sidelines of the Ukraine Mine Action Conference 2024 in Lausanne, which ends on Friday.

The most pessimistic estimates assume it will take 700 years to completely clean up the war-torn country. Other estimates assume a decade thanks to new instruments. "This is certainly the most extensive contamination our center has ever seen," Privitelli said.

Up to a quarter of the country could be affected, according to estimates. The Geneva International Center for Humanitarian Demining (GICHD), together with other partners, began working with Kiev on the new demining policy 18 months ago. Ukraine now has "great financial and technological support as well as deminers on the ground", Privitelli continued. This could make the country a model for humanitarian demining in other countries in the future.

The GICHD received CHF 5 million from the CHF 100 million package approved by the federal government for demining in Ukraine. According to Privitelli, the GICHD will continue its efforts, including organizing a conference on innovation in Kiev in 2025.

SDA