More than 60 international and domestic companies involved in surveying and demining of territories have united into a single Ukraine Demining Cluster and developed a program that will help return contaminated land to use by 2040, cluster representative Yevhenia Popovych told a press conference at the Interfax-Ukraine News Agency on Thursday.

"Ukraine is the most mined country in the world. The scale of contamination by Russian mines and ammunition is astounding, because it is the largest since World War II. Today, about 140,000 square kilometers of Ukrainian territories remain mined," she said.

Popovych noted that according to the most pessimistic forecasts and without taking into account the time of restoration of disrupted lands after demining activities, it will take 700 years to completely clear Ukrainian lands from explosive objects.

According to her, the mission of the cluster is the safety and life of the deminer, the replacement of manual demining with latest technologies, the use of robotic equipment, the effectiveness of technological solutions, the availability of innovation technology means, as well as the efficiency and reduction of the cost of demining 1 square kilometer of Ukrainian territories and difficult to clear areas.

First Deputy Head of the Ukrainian Association of Humanitarian Demining, co-founder of NGO Demining Cluster of Ukraine Oleksiy Botnarenko noted that the issue of mine action has become topical for Ukraine again since 2014.

He recalled that the law on mine action was recently adopted, which strengthened the ranks of mine action participants from the previously involved in the process representatives of the state (the National Police, the Ministry of Defense, the State Emergency Service, and local authorities) to representatives of commercial structures, charitable foundations, non-governmental organizations.

Botnarenko said that the mine action process itself has three facets: legislative, implementation of government policy and operational procedures.

"The demining process is carried out in such a way that almost 90% of the dangerous procedures is performed directly by the deminer. If we consider that the sapper's work is 20 square meters per shift, which lasts 5 hours with breaks every 45 minutes for 15 minutes of rest, we get an endless period of demining. The situation can be remedied by changing the focus of human resource involvement to the latest technologies and artificial intelligence. But the introduction of modern technologies cannot be implemented without improvement of legislation and regulations," he said.

The Ukrainian Association of Humanitarian Demining and its partners are currently working on the creation of an inter-factional parliamentary association in the Verkhovna Rada, which, taking into account the current experience of mine action and the material collected by the association, will develop appropriate amendments to the legislation.

Director of Dropla Tech LLC, co-founder of the Ukrainian-Danish Dropla Tech Holding, and co-founder of the Ukraine Demining Cluster Dmytro Zarubin said that since the beginning of the full-scale invasion, his company has focused on developing IT solutions that help minimize the consequences of the war. The first project was the web application EcoZagroza, which calculates the damage caused to the environment by the occupiers. It was used to calculate the damage caused by the destruction of the Kakhovska Hydroelectric Power Plant. Subsequently, the team realized that this work would be useful in humanitarian demining.

The team started with developing artificial intelligence systems capable of shortening the preparation processes for demining. In the first stage, drones are used to scan information from contaminated areas. The data collected from the fields is uploaded to the system, processed and formed into a map with three types of zones: potentially clean, containing small explosive objects and anti-personnel mines, and containing a lot of explosive objects, anti-tank mines and shaped charge shells.

The second phase of demining (conformation) covers the process of validating the data obtained through big-data processing. As part of these processes, Dropla Tech uses mechanized demining machines, which already include special mowers for clearing dense vegetation, explosive detection machines – machinery that does all the work in the field instead of the deminer.

"We took the path of minimizing the cost of these machines so that the deminer understands that his life is much more expensive than the cost of this equipment," Zarubin said, adding that Dropla Tech will focus on finding solutions for the return of land cleared of explosive ordnance to use and the restoration of territories after the humanitarian demining processes.

Cluster representative Yevhenia Popovych underlined that the established association includes national and international humanitarian demining operators, international and Ukrainian financial partners, innovative demining technology development companies, scientists and mine action training centers.

The cluster has already developed a demining program for 2025-2040, which includes several stages: non-technical survey of the territory (scanning) with the help of new technical solutions, mechanized demining, which will take about ten years, after which it will be necessary to start reclamation of disturbed lands and physical and chemical treatment of soil. The final stage will be planting of green areas on the cleared territories.

Popovych noted that the cluster aims to unite human resources, scientific and information potential, capital and infrastructure. The created association will exchange information about the technologies being developed. At the same time, producers of technologies and products will have access to suppliers of raw materials, spare parts, technologies and equipment. The cluster aims to provide all technologies with financial support on a permanent basis. A separate area of the association's activities will be cooperation with public authorities.

A number of meetings with representatives of the government, parliament, donor and scientific organizations have already been held to implement the ideas of the cluster. Cluster representatives call on colleagues to join the initiative in order to accelerate the return of contaminated land to use.

Ukrainian-Danish Dropla Tech Holding is an IT developer of technological solutions in the field of demining. The company is a participant of Danish government business support programs, Odense Robotics Cluster, TechBBQ: The Startup Event of The Nordics.

NGO National Association for Humanitarian Demining is focused on facilitating the rapid and professional clearance of Ukraine's territories from explosive hazards with the involvement of all interested stakeholders, including mine action equipment manufacturers, accredited demining operators, and government agencies.