Explosives detection dogs significantly accelerate demining of Ukrainian territories
Ukraine today is one of the most mined countries in the world - about 20% of the land cannot be used due to occupation or mining, which creates a need for new survey solutions for the rapid return of land to use. One of the most effective tools has turned out to be technical survey dogs, which are able to identify explosives faster than traditional teams with metal detectors. The main advantage of such animals is their ability to cover large areas and detect the smell of explosives even through dense vegetation, which allows you to significantly reduce the areas that require complete manual or mechanical cleaning.
As noted by Nick Guest, program manager of the animal training organization APOPO Ukraine, in 2025 alone, the organization's teams surveyed 1.4 million square meters of land in the Mykolaiv and Kharkiv regions, and in total cleared 210,000 square meters of explosives.
Currently, 27 Ukrainian dog handlers work at the APOPO training center, located in the Kyiv region, taking care of 46 Belgian Malinois shepherd dogs.
During work, all dogs are equipped with GPS collars to accurately record the route, which allows operators to clearly verify the absence of contamination.
The dogs are divided into two types. Those that detect explosives work on shorter 10-meter leashes, and the vegetation in the area for the dogs to work must be mowed. The technical search dog works on a 25-meter leash and in tall grass. The second type is worked with by the Ukrainian branch of the British NGO The Mines Advisory Group (MAG).
“The dogs move 25 meters, stop, sit down and thus show that they have found an explosive object. In most cases, we do not have to prepare the vegetation in the fields before work, because the dogs are trained to work in such conditions. However, we have found that in Ukraine there are some types of plants that interfere - whether they irritate the dogs or something else - then we have to remove the bushes. To do this, our partner organization MAG sets up remote brush cutters and cuts the vegetation. We leave it for a while so that there is no trace on the ground, and only then can the dogs work,” Nick Guest said.
However, the APOPO program manager noted that the dogs cannot go through any thickets. According to him, in some areas the deminers encountered huge areas of prickly thistles with thorns that irritated the dogs’ skin, eyes and faces, so they could not process these areas and left them for other specialists.
“While dogs do not replace human sappers, they act as force multipliers, pinpointing contaminated areas so teams can focus resources where they are needed most. This targeted approach speeds up surveys, reduces unnecessary excavations, and allows for safer and faster return of land to communities,” said UNDP Mine Action Program Manager Ben Lark.
Thus, such demining has a direct economic impact, as such surveys accelerate the recovery of agriculture and the return of community life.
Ben Lark also said that with coordinated international support, teams involving demining dogs will play an important role in restoring security and livelihoods to affected communities. However, he said that scaling up requires not only funding, but also global partnerships for training, standards and quality systems that ensure sustainability.
“By investing in local capacity and sound regulations, Ukraine can create a national system in which dogs will work seamlessly with other technologies,” added the UNDP demining program manager.
The effectiveness of this work is integrated into the national Demine Ukraine program, which coordinates the implementation of innovative approaches to humanitarian demining. APOPO’s work is supported by international donors – of the six teams that distribute dogs from the center, two are currently supported by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), two by the European Union, one by the US Department of State (which works exclusively with explosive detection dogs), and one by the Howard G. Buffett Foundation.
In addition, to ensure the continuity of the training process, especially in conditions of low temperatures and bad weather, when the dogs cannot work outdoors, the training center uses special greenhouses. Two of these structures were built with UNDP support, which allows the animals to be trained all year round.
Speaking about future plans, Nick Guest notes that next year APOPO plans to expand the geography of its work to the Kyiv region in partnership with the Association of Minesweepers of Ukraine. He added that Aroro is currently implementing a pilot project in Turkey: they are using rats to search for people who survived under the rubble after earthquakes. “This is something that could potentially come in handy after an air strike, a missile strike or a drone strike. We are not doing this here in Ukraine at the moment, but we will think about it next year,” Guest told Interfax-Ukraine.
Despite its proven effectiveness and ambitious plans, further scaling of the method depends on regulatory regulation. MAG representative Mark Warburton emphasizes that currently Ukraine lacks a national standard for animal detection systems (ADS), which complicates the work of operators. Current regulations force additional mandatory clearance of the territory even after the dog survey, which slows down the release of land.
“Without an approved standard, it is very difficult to move forward. Because, for example, despite the recognition of the effectiveness of the dogs’ work, we have nothing to build further work on, because everyone must be certified under uniform conditions, which currently do not exist,” Warburton explained.
MAG representative is confident that the legislative approval of the developed standards will not only accelerate the use of dogs in any region of the country for demining, but also ensure a single high quality and safety of work for all organizations engaged in demining.
“Involving dogs in demining is not only about speed, but also about flexibility. Because dogs can be much more effective in difficult terrain or dense vegetation. We already have the first draft of the relevant standard and are now actively working with stakeholders to make the document as applicable as possible in Ukrainian conditions and adopt it this year,” Deputy Minister of Economy, Environment and Agriculture Ihor Bezkaravainy told Interfax-Ukraine.