Without structural reform of mine action system, clearing farmland will take decades - Accounting Chamber

About a quarter of Ukraine's territory - over 13.9 million hectares - has been affected by hostilities, of which 9.85 million hectares of farmland in 10 regions remain inaccessible for use, said Nina Yuzhanina (European Solidarity), a member of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Finance, Taxation and Customs Policy, referring to the results of an audit by the Accounting Chamber.

"From 2022 to July 2025, 7,750 hectares of agricultural land were demined and returned to use - this is only 0.08% of the area of contaminated agricultural land, another 403,000 hectares were returned to cultivation by farmers in a simplified manner. Therefore, at this rate of demining, it will be possible to completely clear agricultural land in Ukraine only in about 83 years," she wrote on Telegram.

The MP noted that during 2022-2025, 191 farmers died while cultivating agricultural land.

During the audit, the Accounting Chamber, according to Yuzhanina, established that two centers with identical legislatively defined powers operate within state bodies: the Mine Action Center under the Ministry of Defense, which carries out planning, organization and coordination of mine action, informing the population, and also conducts training and certification of mine action operators; as well as the Humanitarian Demining Center under the Secretariat of the Cabinet of Ministers, which processes applications from farmers for humanitarian demining.

"The auditors established that there is no coordination between them, and this leads to ineffective implementation of tasks," the parliamentarian emphasized.

In addition, general coordination is carried out by the National Mine Action Authority and the Interdepartmental Working Group on Humanitarian Demining. Both bodies are advisory and do not have executive powers.

The Accounting Chamber established that during 2022-2024, more than 91% of land survey and demining work in Ukraine was carried out by the State Emergency Service and the Ministry of Defense. At the same time, the Ministry of Defense has only 79% of its personnel, and the service has 68%. The level of technical support of their units is 55-75%.

"At the same time, the supply of equipment for humanitarian demining, financed by the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), in 2023-2024, as of January 1, 2025, actually amounted to only 35% of the volume provided for by grant agreements. Due to delays in document processing, part of the received equipment has not been put into operation," Yuzhanina drew attention.

As of January 1, 2025, 73 mine action operators (private and public) were officially registered in Ukraine, which is 2.6 times more than a year earlier. However, actual humanitarian demining work was carried out by only 24 operators, including four state structures. Their share is only 9% of the total volume of work performed.