Almost $38 billion will be needed in the next 10 years to demine priority areas - Ministry of Environment

About 139 thousand sq. km of Ukrainian territory remain mined as of today, and almost $38 billion will be needed to clear priority areas in the next 10 years, said the Minister of Environmental Protection and Natural Resources of Ukraine Svitlana Grinchuk.

"The total area of ​​potentially mined territories today is about 139 thousand sq. km. (...) According to the World Bank, demining costs somewhere from $2 to $8 per sq. m. And if we calculate the lands that we have identified as priority for demining over 10 years, it is almost $38 billion," the ministry's statement quoted her words as saying.

According to Grinchuk, mined forest resources currently amount to about 4.5 thousand sq. km, 10% of which was cleared during 2023-2024. "These are the territories that were liberated," the minister emphasized.

She noted that protected areas are also heavily mined, especially those located in frontline regions. In a year, thanks to the solidarity of partners and internal resources, Ukraine has returned almost 35.5 thousand square kilometers of its land to operation.

The Minister emphasized that the demining process itself will take a very long time. The use of advanced technologies will help speed it up, but it will still take tens and even hundreds of years.