The government has allowed certified operators to reserve from conscription 100% of the deminers who directly clear the territories
Enterprises, institutions, and organisations that are certified mine action operators will be able to reserve from conscription 100% of the composition of groups or departments that directly carry out demining. The Cabinet of Ministers adopted the relevant amendments to Resolution No. 76 at a meeting on 18 June 2024.
«Humanitarian demining of the territory of Ukraine is one of the key tasks that the Government and our international partners are working to address. It is necessary to ensure the population's safety in potentially mine-contaminated areas and return these lands to economic use as soon as possible. Both economic growth in Ukraine and food security in the world depend on this. Reservation of trained demining specialists who are working for operators will create the essential prerequisites for systematic work on demining the territories», said Deputy Minister of Economy of Ukraine Ihor Bezkaravaynyi.
The government's decision provides for the reservation of only certified demining specialists who are part of the groups of:
- Non-technical survey;
- technical survey;
- clearing;
- inspection;
- quality control.
These are civilians who have received basic training sufficient to search for mines and explosive devices in the fields. Such workers can be reserved regardless of their military specialty, age, or military rank.
The reservation may be cancelled if the mine action operator does not carry out humanitarian demining for six months.
As of early June, 42 mine action operators were certified in Ukraine. 53 organisations are in the process of certification, 31 of which are governmental. In May, about 2,000 specialists were involved in humanitarian demining and another 1,900 in rapid response.