Alyona Matveeva spoke about international assistance to Ukraine in the field of humanitarian demining
The issue of accession to the EU Civil Protection Mechanism has always been a priority for Ukraine. On September 5, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the State Emergency Service of Ukraine signed an agreement with European partners to assist Ukraine in joining the EU Civil Protection Mechanism. This was stated by the spokeswoman of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine Alyona Matveeva.
“Our partner countries have officially supported Ukraine on the way to joining the EU Civil Protection Mechanism, which currently provides the most powerful international, coordinated, operational assistance in emergency situations. The EU Civil Protection Mechanism unites all EU emergency services. September 5 with the participation of the leadership of the State Fire Service of the Republic of Poland, the Estonian Rescue Council, the State Fire and Rescue Service of the Republic of Latvia, the State Fire and Rescue Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Republic of Lithuania, as well as the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the State Emergency Service of Ukraine, an agreement was signed to assist Ukraine in joining the EU Civil Protection Mechanism,” said Alyona Matveeva.
According to her, the Civil Protection Mechanism of the EU in the history of its existence has not faced such large-scale humanitarian challenges as currently in Ukraine. But the EU Civil Protection Mechanism continues to provide assistance, involving all 27 EU countries, as well as Turkey, Norway and North Macedonia.
“Given the daily, long struggle of the Ukrainian people against the Russian occupiers, our rescuers have gained new skills to perform their duties during the war. We are now ready to share these skills, experience of working in combat conditions to strengthen the system of the EU Civil Protection Mechanism,” the spokeswoman of the Ministry of Internal Affairs noted.
Alyona Matveeva stressed that when it comes to demining, we are not only talking about settlements, we are also talking about reservoirs, the Azov and the Black Sea.
“This whole area needs demining for about 5-7 years, it is complete demining. But the units of the State Emergency Service are focused on primary operational demining — when roads and entrances to settlements begin to be mined in the de-occupied territories. We expect that the initial demining will be completed in the de-occupied territories throughout the year. When the primary demining is carried out, then the demining of forest strips, reservoirs, fields, forests follows,” she said.
According to the spokeswoman of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, in order to speed up demining, new and already working pyrotechnics for advanced training are undergoing trainings and training courses.
“One of them is the neutralization of improvised explosive objects of the Estonian Rescue Service Center, training courses on OSCE International Technical Assistance projects, as well as “Development of the potential of mine protection activities”, and a number of trainings and exercises with foreign partners. The Interregional Humanitarian Aid Centre has signed a memorandum in the field of mining activities with the Geneva Centre for Humanitarian Demining, as well as with the Croatian Mine Action Centre,” said Alyona Matveeva.
Department of Communications of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine Photo by Andriy Novytskyi
