Since the beginning of the war, the pyrotechnic units of the State Emergency Service have examined more than 61 thousand hectares and defused almost 140 thousand explosive objects
Alyona Matveeva, spokeswoman of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine, reported on the results of the work of pyrotechnic units of the Ministry of Internal Affairs as of June 21 during the weekly briefing in Ukrinform.
Currently, demining requires an area of about 270 thousand square kilometers, including the currently occupied territories. The Ministry of Internal Affairs directs pyrotechnic units to carry out primary operational demining within a year from the moment of de-occupation of the territory. Full demining of areas contaminated with explosive objects will last 5-10 years.
As Alyona Matveeva reported, now 600 pyrotechnicians work in the State Emergency Service. By the decision of the Government, the pyrotechnic units will add another 400 specialists.
“Currently, the SNS has 120 pyrotechnic calculations. About 100 more will be created in the near future. One pyrotechnic calculation is five pyrotechnics and three vehicles: one armored car, one technical and one - for the transportation of personnel,” the spokeswoman of the Ministry of Internal Affairs noted.
International partners continue to join the humanitarian demining of Ukraine. In particular, the Interregional Center for Humanitarian De-mining of the State Emergency Service of Ukraine has signed Memoranda on cooperation in the field of mining activities with the Geneva Center for Humanitarian Demining, as well as with the Croatian Mine Action Center — the Center for Testing, Development and Training.
“In order to train and improve the qualifications of pyrotechnicians on the basis of the Interregional Center for Humanitarian Demining and Rapid Response, trainings and training courses on the defusing of improvised explosive devices, on non-technical inspection and on humanitarian demining have been organized,” said Alyona Matveeva.
In total, since the beginning of the war, the pyrotechnic units of the State Emergency Service have surveyed an area of more than 61 thousand hectares; they have detected, seized and defused almost 140 thousand units of explosive objects, including about 2 thousand aircraft bombs.
“Over the past week, pyrotechnic units carried out 724 engagements, detected, seized and defused almost 5 thousand explosive objects, including 6 aircraft bombs, surveyed an area of more than 22,000 hectares,” the spokeswoman of the Ministry of Internal Affairs summed up.
Pyrotechnics are actively working on lakes and rivers. Currently, it is dangerous to swim in most reservoirs of Kyiv, Kharkiv, Sumy and Chernihiv regions due to the presence of explosive devices. Local authorities independently determine whether it is possible to swim in certain bodies of water.
“We urge Ukrainians not to rest on the shores of water bodies because of the high mine hazard. We emphasize that it is necessary to wait for the survey of the territory of reservoirs by special units. We also remind you of criminal responsibility for the illegal storage of explosive materials and weapons, in particular trophy weapons,” said Alyona Matveeva.
Department of Communications of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine
