Colonel Maxim Komissarov, the head of the Department of Ecological Safety and Mine Action of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, said that the greatest threat to the civilian population was unexploded ordnance. In order to clear the entire Donbass area from the UOs, it will take about 15-20 years, Vitalii Martyniuk, the head of the international programs of the Centre for Global Studies "Strategy XXI" has calculated. And the officer of the General Staff of the Armed Forces, Colonel Viktor Shidlyuk, warns that the threat of detonation of explosive objects is not only in the Donbass, but also in other regions of Ukraine.
About 10 thousand square kilometers of territories controlled by Ukraine are contaminated with explosive objects on the Donbass, said the head of the Department of Ecological Safety and Mine Action of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, ColonelMaxim Komissarov. It is not only mines, he notes, but also unexploded ordnance. And the latter, in his words, constitute a bigger threat.
"Russian terrorist troops are currently using ammunition which term of service have already expired or are on the verge of this term. And, as a rule, these ammunitions do not explode. Therefore, they are also a great threat to our population," Komissarov says.
According to Komissarov, since 2014, the Armed Forces of Ukraine and the State Emergency Service (SES) have cleared more than 26 thousand hectares of territories and extracted 346 thousand explosive objects. At the same time, he stresses, there are a lot of territories, especially in the gray zone, which are subjected to repeated attacks and mines.
Vitalii Martyniuk,Head of International Programs at the Centre for Global Studies "Strategy XXI"said: “It is difficult to determine the exact time it will take to clean up, since there is no complete picture of what is happening”.
"According to very rigorous calculations, if we take that the area of the occupied territory of Donbas is about 18 thousand square kilometers, and along with the adjoining territory, it will be about 20 thousand square kilometers, and taking into account the experience of other countries, for example, the Balkans, it will be necessary for us about 15-20 years", - he assumes.
Komissarov isconvinced that Ukraine is able to handle itself with the demining of the Donbas. However, he notes, the question arises here: the country itself will do it longer. Therefore, the colonel thinks that it is necessary to consolidate the internal efforts of the state and help from the outside to clean the territories.
