Ukraine’s humanitarian demining sector has faced a period of stagnation. According to Ihor Bezkaravainyi, Deputy Minister of Economy, Environment and Agriculture, the key problems are not a lack of technology or demining operators, but insufficient executive discipline, unclear allocation of responsibilities, and shortcomings in data management.
Ukraine still does not have a fully operational centralized registry of contaminated and potentially contaminated areas, although work on its creation is ongoing.
At the same time, the state is working with IMSMA Core and a prioritization system. By the end of 2026, a registry is expected to be launched that will consolidate information on land contamination.
The Problem of Responsibility and Coordination
According to Bezkaravainyi, one of the main challenges is the large number of government agencies involved in humanitarian demining, with each institution having its own area of responsibility.
His proposed approach is to establish a single coordination center that would collect information and set common rules without taking over the functions of individual agencies and services.
Another critical issue is the absence of a centralized knowledge base where new technologies, methodologies, and practical experience in dealing with different types of explosive ordnance could be accumulated and shared.
Such a system would allow successful practices to be scaled up more quickly and prevent organizations from repeatedly solving the same technical and organizational problems independently.
Practical Results Are Growing
Despite the systemic problems, the practical performance of the sector is improving.
Within the framework of the state budget program alone, demining operators have already completed 100 contracts and returned 16,400 hectares of agricultural land to productive use.
The total cost of these works exceeded UAH 966 million.
For 2026, UAH 1.7 billion has been allocated from the state budget to the humanitarian demining program.
These figures demonstrate that the sector has the capacity to expand. The main challenge is to ensure that available funding, technologies, operators, and information systems are integrated into an effective management framework.
What Needs to Change
The current situation demonstrates that Ukraine’s humanitarian demining challenge is no longer primarily a question of whether the country has sufficient technologies or qualified operators.
The critical issue is the ability of the state to coordinate these resources effectively.
A centralized system for contaminated-land data, clear distribution of responsibilities, a unified coordination mechanism, and a shared knowledge base could significantly improve the speed and efficiency of humanitarian demining.
For Ukraine, this is not only an economic issue. The faster agricultural land, infrastructure, and populated areas are cleared, the faster affected communities can return to normal life and the country can restore economic activity in areas affected by the war.
The development of an effective national demining management system therefore remains one of the key priorities for Ukraine in 2026.