EU to launch a €25 million humanitarian demining program in Ukraine, says Shmyhal

The European Union will launch a humanitarian demining program in Ukraine worth €25 million, Ukraine’s Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said Thursday, according to UNIAN.

He made the announcement following a meeting with European Commission Vice-President Josep Borrel, who was in Kyiv among the EC College members who arrived for a meeting with the Government of Ukraine.

Humanitarian demining is an effort aimed at reducing the social, economic and environmental damage of mines.

As a result of Russia’s full-scale invasion, Ukraine has become the world’s most mine-contaminated country. As of early December 2022, about 170,000 square kilometers of Ukrainian territory, or more than a quarter, was contaminated with mines, President Zelensky said, according to UNIAN.