Marshall plan for mines needed in Ukraine

Ukraine urgently needs a 'Marshall Plan for mines' after 12 months of war and mine laying has left the country with the biggest explosives problem of the 21st century. 

HALO, with our operations in 30 countries and territories including Ukraine, has analyzed open-source data and compared its previous clearance work in Afghanistan, Cambodia and Mozambique to assess the scale of the task to make Ukraine safe.

The Ukrainian government estimates that around 40 per cent of Ukraine – around 250,000 square kilometers – may need to be searched and cleared of mines and explosives. This equates to an area larger than the United Kingdom. In addition to anti-personnel and anti-tank mines, tens of thousands of artillery shells are being fired every day – with thousands failing to explode.

Open-source satellite imagery indicates there are minefields that stretch for hundreds of kilometers in the east and the south of the country. One single fortified mine line runs 90km from the Russian border to north of the town of Lysychansk in the east. Other images show multiple lines of Russian fortifications north of Melitopol that zigzag for 300km. Similar fortifications were used on the Cambodian border, where a 700km long mine belt was laid in the 1980s.

"The clearance of unexploded ordnance and landmines from Ukrainian land is one of the greatest challenges caused by war in recent history, said James Cowan, CEO, The HALO Trust.

"Lessons from previous conflicts tell us that roughly one day of fighting results in a month of clearance. But the scale of the shelling, the vastness of the territory and the deliberate targeting of major infrastructure means that clearing debris of war in Ukraine will require unprecedented global funding and collaboration between state, private and philanthropic donors.

"A definitive and coordinated ‘Marshall plan for mines’ would be a clear call to action for the international community."

HALO is working across Ukraine in partnership with the State Emergency Services (SES), the National Mine Action Authority and its Ministry of Defense.

"The Ukrainian authorities and its State Emergency Services are delivering an extraordinary response which has saved thousands of civilians, continued Mr Cowan.

"We are proud to be working in partnership with them to clear land, deliver safety messaging to the civilian population and share our machinery and logistics. This vital work will restore Ukrainian livelihoods, agriculture and infrastructure."

HALO established its Ukraine program in the Donbas in 2016 and relocated our workforce to the Kyiv oblast in April 2022 so our staff could deliver urgent clearance, community awareness sessions and rapid contamination survey in areas that had been occupied by Russian troops, such as Bucha and Irpin.

Over the following months, we expanded our workforce and established operations in Chernihiv, Kharkiv, Sumy and Mykolaiv oblasts. We aim to have 1,200 Ukrainian staff operating across the country by the end of 2023, as well as establishing a global center for research and development for complex post-war clearance.

The data released includes examples from HALO's work in the following countries: 

Afghanistan: The country was invaded and heavily mined by the Soviet Union in 1979. Since 2005, Afghanistan has received $1.2 billion for mine clearance

The K5 mine belt in Cambodia is around 700km in length and was laid to prevent the Khmer Rouge from entering Thailand in 1980s and contains an estimated 3000 mines per km. Total global funding for the whole of Cambodia between 2005-2020 was $449m

Mozambique was declared mine-impact free in 2015 after HALO had worked there for over 22 years. Total global funding for mine clearance amounted to over $300m and included clearance of major infrastructure, including the Cahora Bassa hydro-electric dam.