Deputy Head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine Bogdan Drapyaty discussed with the delegation of the Kingdom of the Netherlands the issue of demining Ukraine
Today, May 22, the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine held a meeting of the Deputy Head of the Department Bogdan Drapyaty with the delegation of the Kingdom of the Netherlands as part of the Senior Coordinator on Humanitarian Demining of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands Dicky Metorst, a specialist on humanitarian demining of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands The lands of Lucas Daalheisen and others.
At the beginning of the meeting, Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs of Ukraine Bogdan Drapyaty thanked the Dutch partners for the military, economic, humanitarian and diplomatic support of Ukraine against the background of the full-scale invasion of the Russian Federation:
“Every day, the terrorist state Russia purposefully kills the civilian population of Ukraine and destroys entire cities and infrastructure throughout the territory of our country. However, thanks to the Netherlands, the skies over Ukraine have become more protected from enemy ballistic missiles and attack drones.
Bohdan Drapyaty stressed that in addition to constant attacks, Ukraine has a problem with the country's minesweeping. According to him, at present about 30% of the territory of Ukraine has been mined.
“In addition to human casualties, the total destruction of civil and energy infrastructure caused by Russia's brutal war against Ukraine, there are a significant number of concomitant problems, and one of the biggest is the contamination of a huge area of territories with explosive objects. As you know, Ukraine is the first in the world in the area of mined territories. About 174 thousand square kilometers of territories are potentially dangerous for life and economy,” said the Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs of Ukraine.
Bohdan Drapyaty said that Ukraine, for its part, increased the number of sappers. In addition, it is planned to create professional minesweeping units in the areas where combat operations have been conducted and are being conducted, as well as to increase units in the rest of the regions to form a reserve of forces and resources.
However, the newly created units urgently need to be equipped with special equipment and equipment, primarily pyrotechnic vehicles for the transportation of personnel and transportation of explosive objects.
“To date, there are only 9 vehicles in the system of the Ministry of Internal Affairs that can carry out mechanized demining. For example, one day of operation of a demining machine replaces one hundred days of work of pyrotechnics. At the moment, we primarily need 53 such cars,” Bohdan Drapyaty addressed the partners.
In turn, Senior Coordinator for Humanitarian Demining of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Kingdom of the Netherlands Dicky Metorst said that their country understands all the challenges that Ukraine faced against the background of the armed aggression of the Russian Federation. According to her, this is why the Government of the Netherlands has been helping Ukraine in the field of humanitarian demining since 2015:
“With the outbreak of a full-scale war, we have broadened the spectrum of our support for demining. Currently, the amount of funds that we allocate to non-governmental organizations to support Ukraine amounts to 6 million euros.”
Plus, Dickie Metorst said that the Netherlands is providing support to Ukrainians who have suffered mine and blast injuries as a result of Russian attacks. The Netherlands also supports educational projects to inform the public about the risks associated with mine hazards.
The event was also attended by the Deputy Head of the State Emergency Service of Ukraine Roman Primush. He thanked partners from the Netherlands for their assistance and assured that Ukraine had managed to make a significant step in the issue of humanitarian demining. According to him, this was done precisely thanks to joint coordination of actions with partners.
In addition to the steps already taken, the parties discussed how to improve the situation with demining, in particular with the help of drones that will detect enemy mines on the territory of Ukraine.
At the end of the meeting, representatives of Ukraine and the Netherlands agreed to continue to cooperate and coordinate further actions on demining.
“We will continue to support you and meet your needs. We have already got a list of the equipment you need. So now we will do everything we can to provide you with all the necessary assistance in the future,” said Dicky Metorst, coordinator for humanitarian demining at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands.
Department of Communications of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine
