Updated demining plan: Ukraine starts returning agricultural land to economic use

The Ministry of Economy of Ukraine announces an updated plan for the priority survey and demining of agricultural land, which will start in early 2024. According to the new data, more than 512 thousand hectares of farmland will be subject to clearance and demining.

Over the past year, sappers have already completed a huge amount of work to inspect and clear agricultural land. 274,000 hectares were inspected, which is more than half of the area planned to be returned to farmers for use within four years.

First Vice Prime Minister of Ukraine and Minister of Economy Yulia Svyrydenko pointed out that the new target is to return more than 512 thousand hectares of land to economic use. The updated plan was developed based on updated data from the Office of Territorial Restoration and proposals from operators.

Representatives of the Ministry of Defense, the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the Ministry of Agrarian Policy and Food, and the Ministry of Economy took part in the development of the plan. Implementation of the updated plan will facilitate more efficient use of available resources.

According to the updated plan, the priority return of land to economic use will take place in 8 regions. Surveys and, if necessary, cleanup and demining are planned in a number of regions, including Donetsk, Chernihiv, Sumy, Dnipro, Kyiv, Mykolaiv, Kharkiv and Kherson.

As a result of the plan, more than 200,000 hectares of agricultural land have already been returned to economic use in 2023.