Ukraine: landmines crisis - Press Conference United Nations

Press conference by Paul Heslop, the Senior UN Mine Action Adviser to the Resident Coordinator and UN Country Team in Ukraine (UNMAS), on Ukraine. The widespread presence of landmines and unexploded ordnance in Ukraine is not just a national crisis, but a global one, warned a senior UN official today (05 June) linking the contamination to rising global food and energy costs. “Every person in this room, every person in this city, every person in this country, and every person on this planet is paying more for their food and more for their energy because of the conflict in Ukraine,” said Paul Heslop, the UN’s Senior Mine Action Adviser in Ukraine.

Speaking to reporters in New York, Heslop stressed that restoring contaminated land to productive use could ease the burden on global markets. “The ability to get land back into use, that will bring down those prices, is dependent on the actual presence of mines and other unexploded devices,” he said, emphasizing the need to challenge both the physical and perceived risks of contamination. About 20 percent of Ukraine’s territory is suspected to be contaminated, Heslop said, affecting more than six million people who now live near hazardous areas.

The scale of the issue is unprecedented. Heslop noted that 30,000 square kilometers of land once believed contaminated were found to be safe and could now return to agricultural production -“the equivalent of 20 times the current problem in Afghanistan,” he said. These assessments were achieved at low cost by “adopting new technology and thinking in a new way.” Demining, he added, is “an inherently inefficient process,” with 95 percent of clearance efforts often spent on land that turns out to be safe. “You don't know exactly where the mines are,” Heslop said, underscoring the urgency of adopting more accurate and cost-effective strategies.

With the cost of cleanup likely to reach billions of dollars, he warned of long-term economic consequences. “Is it going to be single-digit billions of dollars or is it going to be tens or hundreds of billions?” he asked. Ukraine’s digital infrastructure could be a vital asset in this effort.

Heslop praised the country’s tech-savvy approach, including using mobile data to assess road usage and track returning populations. “Integrating different levels of technology, different levels of data, and non-traditional sources of data” can help target mine action efforts more effectively, he said. He also underscored the sheer volume of unexploded ordnance. Based on conservative estimates, Heslop said that up to 10 million unexploded bombs may remain across Ukraine. “That is going to be a lot of work, and it’s going to need to be resourced, and we’re going to need to address it.”

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