National operators have cleared several times more land than international ones — more and at lower cost

This was stated today by UDS CEO Oleksandr Liiev during an event held as part of the visit of the UK All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Explosive Weapons and Their Consequences.

The result of an operator’s work is an officially cleared area of land, for which a state-standard certificate is issued, transferring responsibility for the cleared territory to the government. Such a certificate is issued only after the area’s safety has been confirmed and verified according to national standards.

All certificates are registered in the international IMSMA system, where every operator can verify who has cleared which territories and how much land has been demined.

“According to the international IMSMA system, as of October 1, 2025, national commercial operators have cleared 16,131 hectares of land. The government and other clients spent nearly 800 million UAH on this work. All this volume was completed by commercial operators — in less than a year. Based on the system data, UDS ranks among the top three companies among commercial operators in terms of cleared areas, having cleared 2,533 hectares of Ukrainian land from the remnants of war. For comparison: international operators have cleared about 6,000 hectares in two years. The exact cost of this work is unknown, but open sources indicate that it amounted to at least €120 million — ten times more than what commercial operators spent while clearing three times more land,” emphasized UDS CEO Oleksandr Liiev.

According to him, commercial operators were established in response to the government’s call to form a humanitarian demining market.

“It is competition that ensures low cost, high quality, innovation, and productivity,” — noted Oleksandr Liiev.

In his speech, he also stressed that donor funds should be directed to commercial operators as well:

“If donor financing is allocated to commercial operators and contractors are selected through tenders such as Prozorro, this would make it possible to multiply the scope of work using the same amount of funds,” — the UDS CEO added.

Liiev also highlighted that a humanitarian demining market has already been formed in Ukraine thanks to the Center for Humanitarian Demining (CHD).

“There is now an established structure of a state customer — the Center for Humanitarian Demining, which conducts tenders and operates a quality control system that ensures efficient use of funds, transparency, and measurable results. The CHD could serve as an effective manager of donor funding by using this already established state customer framework,” — summed up Oleksandr Liiev.

During the conference, speeches were also given by representatives of government institutions:

1. Colonel Ruslan Berehulia, Head of the Secretariat of the National Mine Action Authority;
2. Colonel Yevhenii Biriukov, Head of the Mine Action Center;
3. Volodymyr Baida, Head of the Center for Humanitarian Demining;
4. Danylo Kyslyi, Coordinator of the Mine Action Coordination Center at the Kharkiv Regional Military Administration;
5. Colonel Mykhailo Konopelniuk, Representative of the State Special Transport Service.

The event was also attended by representatives of national and international demining companies and organizations, including FSD, Ukrainian Deminers Association (UDA), Norwegian People’s Aid (NPA), Danish Refugee Council (DRC), Sheriff Demining, and others.

A separate session of the conference was dedicated to Ukrainian technology manufacturers, including Trembita, a producer of metal detectors, and other companies developing innovative solutions for humanitarian demining.

UDS sincerely thanks the organizers for such a valuable and productive event!

The event was organized by Animar Ukraine with the participation of the UK All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Explosive Weapons and Their Consequences, and supported by the Office of the UN Resident Coordinator in Ukraine, represented by Mr. Paul Heslop, Senior Mine Action Advisor.