Open market

Humanitarian demining market in Ukraine is a new segment that can play an important role in freeing contaminated territories from explosive objects for their safe and productive use.

Humanitarian demining is one of the types of demining, which involves the certified activity of gradual demining of continuous massifs of territories outside the combat zone (more than 20 km from the contact line), in particular agricultural lands, with quality control and transfer of cleared territory.

The main objective of humanitarian demining is the safety of people so that they can return to their homes and start a normal life.

As in any other service sector, the humanitarian demining market is built on consumer demand for a specific product – land demining services – and the offer of a service provider – an operator capable of providing such services. At the market launch stage, the state plays an important role, which ensures transparent rules of the game and provides support to market participants.

As of June, 144,000 km2 are considered to have been affected by hostilities. A significant part of these territories is agricultural land. They are returned to productive use after a non-technical inspection if no mines and other explosive objects were found there, or after demining. Since the beginning of the invasion, thanks to the work of government structures and humanitarian demining operators, 30,000 km2 of land has been returned to use. However, even more land is still potentially mined.

As of June 2024, there are more than 40 mine action operators working in the mine action market in Ukraine who can provide relevant paid services and make a significant contribution to the liberation of Ukrainian lands from explosive objects. Demining is an expensive service, therefore 3 billion hryvnias have been laid in the state budget of Ukraine for 2024 to stimulate the market. for compensation to farmers for humanitarian demining of agricultural lands. This, in turn, will contribute to the development of the mine action market in Ukraine.

The humanitarian demining market provides that any individual or legal entity can order land demining services from private operators. In order to speed up the demining process of Ukrainian lands and to stimulate the development of the mine action market, the Government adopted the Procedure for the use of funds provided for in the state budget for compensation of costs for humanitarian demining of agricultural lands.

As part of the implementation of the specified Procedure, procurement of demining services will be carried out through the electronic public procurement system Prozorro. Any certified commercial operator will be able to submit its proposal as part of an open tender for the demining of a certain area. The government compensates from the budget 80% of the cost of demining. 20% of the amount must be covered by the agro-producer working on the land to be demined.

Key tasks for the development of the humanitarian demining market in Ukraine include:

1. Decreasing the cost of land cleanup: creation of mechanisms that allow speeding up and making the process of cleanup of contaminated land cheaper.
2. Creation and scaling of production of demining equipment and machines: development of domestic manufacturers of specialized equipment.
3. Attraction of international support: cooperation with foreign partners for exchange of experience and financial support.

Procedure of compensation for the cost of demining services in agricultural areas:

1. Agricultural commodity producer (Farmer) submits an application to the State Agrarian Register (DAR), where an initial check is carried out - whether the land really belongs to the farmer, whether it passed a non-technical inspection and pollution was really found there.
2. The Humanitarian Demining Center (hereinafter referred to as the Center) carries out additional verification of submitted documents.
3. The Center determines the expected cost of demining the rural area and purchases such services.
4. The Center informs the farmer about the completed bidding and the operator of the winner.
5. The Farmer transfers 20% of the cost of the service to an open special account in the state bank of his choice.
6. The Center transfers 80% of the cost of the works to a special account.
7. Operator of mine countermeasures activities starts demining the site after reserving the entire amount.
8. The Operator completes the demining of the site and sends to the Center documents confirming the demining: a certificate of completion of works, a certificate of inspection of cleared/demined land.
9. The Center for humanitarian demining checks the documents and sends them to the bank.
10. The Bank transfers funds for demining to the operator.

An application for receiving compensation can also be submitted by farmers whose lands have already been demined by certified mine action operators in the period from February 24, 2022 to April 15, 2024.

To receive compensation, you must:

• fill out an application for compensation;
• send the completed application to the e-mail address of the Center for Humanitarian Demining ([email protected]).

It is important to add copies of documents confirming the very fact of demining to the letter:

• contract for the provision of demining services;
• act of rendered services;
• a document confirming payment for the services provided.

The Center for Humanitarian Demining verifies the documents, forms a list of farmers who meet the requirements and sends the documents for review by the Commission for consideration of issues related to the provision of compensation for costs for humanitarian demining of agricultural lands under the Ministry of Economy, which makes the final decision.

Compensation will be provided only once per contaminated site.

The program is valid on the entire territory of Ukraine, where there are confirmed contaminated or presumably contaminated land plots.