Demining Leaders in Ukraine: HALO Trust, SESU, DRC and the World's Most Mined Country

Ukraine has become what multiple humanitarian mine action assessments describe as the world's most severely mine-contaminated country. Ukrainian government estimates, cited by the UN and international mine action organizations, suggest that between 150,000 and 200,000 square kilometers of territory — an area approximately the size of England and Wales combined — may be contaminated with landmines, anti-tank mines, cluster munition sub-munitions, rocket artillery scattered submunitions, and other unexploded ordnance. At current global clearance rates applied to Ukraine's extraordinary contamination scale, achieving even a basic level of land release (either confirmed cleared or confirmed reduced risk) across all contaminated territory would take decades. The institutional response — led by Ukraine's own SESU demining department alongside international organizations including HALO Trust, Danish Refugee Council (DRC), and others — represents the largest humanitarian mine action operation in history.

SESU Pyrotechnics Department

Ukraine's State Emergency Service (SESU/DSNS) maintains a pyrotechnics (explosive ordnance disposal) department responsible for responding to individual found-ordnance calls across the country — the daily reality of Ukrainian life in which farmers, construction workers, foragers, and children encounter landmines, cluster sub-munitions, or unexploded shells. SESU pyrotechnicians respond to hundreds of calls daily across Ukraine, rendering safe or destroying individual items of ordnance in a person-by-person, field-by-field process that constitutes the front line of civilian mine protection. These teams work under significant personal risk — accidental detonation is a permanent hazard — and at a pace that cannot match contamination scale. SESU pyrotechnicians also coordinate with the international mine action organizations working in Ukraine, sharing survey data and deconflicting operational areas to maximize landscape-level clearance efficiency.

Key Demining Organizations in Ukraine

HALO Trust: Largest Country Operation

HALO Trust — the world's largest humanitarian landmine clearance organization, established in 1988 with major operations in Afghanistan, Angola, Cambodia, and dozens of other countries — significantly expanded its Ukraine operations following the full-scale invasion. By 2023, HALO's Ukraine program had become its largest single-country operation globally, a measure of both the severity of Ukraine's mine contamination and HALO's significant donor support for Ukrainian operations. HALO's Ukraine work focuses primarily on agricultural land clearance — prioritizing fields that can be returned to productive farming use — consistent with the overall humanitarian mine action priority given to economic recovery alongside civilian safety. HALO deploys both manual demining teams (individual deminers working systematic clearance lanes) and mechanical assets (mine clearance machines for area reduction before manual confirmation) and has been one of the principal trainers for expanded Ukrainian national capacity.

The Scale of Ukraine's Contamination Challenge

The 150,000–200,000 km² contamination estimate requires context: this does not mean every square meter in that area has mines, but that survey evidence suggests the presence of hazardous ordnance that must be systematically addressed before the land can be safely re-occupied or used. The ordnance types create distinct clearance challenges. Anti-tank mines (both Soviet-pattern TM-62 types used by Russian forces and newer Russian types) are designed to resist clearance and may have anti-handling features that increase danger to manual deminers. Cluster munition sub-munitions (widely used by Russia including PFM "butterfly mine" types and PTAB anti-armor sub-munitions) are small, scattered across wide areas by tens to hundreds per rocket or bomb, and have high dud rates making them persistent hazards. Artillery and rocket UXO (unexploded shells that failed to detonate on impact) litters frontline areas at concentrations that may require mechanical processing before manual search is feasible.

Frequently Asked Questions

How long will it take to clear Ukraine of mines?

With current global humanitarian mine action capacity — even if all of it were directed exclusively at Ukraine, which is impossible — full clearance of Ukraine's contaminated territory would take 70-100 years by UN estimates. With realistic projections of capacity increases (training more Ukrainian deminers, deploying more international organizations, using more mechanical assets), more optimistic estimates suggest 10-30 years to clear priority areas including agricultural land, residential zones, and infrastructure corridors. The distinction between cleared and managed is crucial: priority areas for human safety and economic recovery can be addressed in a 10-15 year horizon with adequate resources; full decontamination of remote frontline areas is a much longer prospect. Ukraine's national demining strategy sets a 2033 target for clearing the highest-priority land — agricultural land and residential areas — which international demining experts describe as ambitious but potentially achievable with adequate funding.

What is the cost of clearing Ukraine's mines?

Comprehensive cost estimates for Ukraine's full demining range from $30 billion to $80 billion or more, depending on the contamination area assumed and the methodology used. Clearance costs vary significantly by technique (manual clearance runs at $1-5 per square meter in relatively accessible areas; mechanical clearance can process larger areas faster at different cost structures) and by ordnance type and density. The World Bank's Ukraine Rapid Damage and Needs Assessment included demining in the reconstruction cost estimate. The actual annual funding flowing to Ukrainian mine action as of 2023 was approximately $500 million–$1 billion, suggesting a multi-decade clearance horizon even with significant international funding support. The economic return on demining spending is high — restoring agricultural land to production generates significant Ukrainian GDP recovery — which is the investment case made to international donors.

Are Russian-used cluster munitions a particular challenge?

Yes. Russia used cluster munitions extensively throughout the war, including types banned for signatories to the Convention on Cluster Munitions (CCM) — though neither Russia nor Ukraine is a CCM signatory. The PFM-1 "butterfly mine" — a Soviet-designed plastic-bodied sub-munition scattered by air-delivered systems — presents particularly severe humanitarian risks because its small size and non-metallic construction make it difficult to detect with conventional metal detectors, and its appearance (roughly resembling a mechanical butterfly or toy) has led to children picking them up with fatal results. Cluster sub-munition clearance typically requires more labor-intensive manual search methodologies than anti-tank mine clearance, increasing cost and slowing clearance rates. The US provision of US-produced cluster munitions (DPICM) to Ukraine in 2023 added a different type of sub-munition to the UXO landscape — one with lower dud rates than Russian types but still requiring future clearance.

How are Ukrainian deminers trained?

Ukrainian government deminers (SESU pyrotechnicians and military engineer EOD) receive training through their institutional pipelines, supplemented during the war by international training support from HALO Trust, DRC, Norwegian People's Aid, and bilateral expert teams from NATO member state military engineering formations. Civilian humanitarian deminers follow the international humanitarian mine action standards — IMAS (International Mine Action Standards) — which specify training curricula, certification requirements, quality management, and safety protocols. HALO Trust and DRC have been the primary trainers for civilian Ukrainian demining capacity expansion. Training newly qualified deminers takes minimum six weeks for basic qualification; working at speed in the complex post-war environment requires years of supervised operational experience. Ukraine's need to train thousands of new deminers is a significant institutional challenge that international organizations and bilateral training programs are supporting.

What happens to agricultural land before it is cleared?

Agricultural land identified as potentially contaminated is formally hazardous and should not be farmed until cleared. In practice, economic survival pressures have caused some Ukrainian farmers to resume work on land that may be contaminated — accepting accidental detonation risk for themselves and their equipment against the risk of complete income loss. Tractor-driven incidents (mines detonated by agricultural machinery) have killed and injured farmers in Kherson, Kharkiv, and Zaporizhzhia oblasts after these territories were liberated. Government and international organizations run educational campaigns informing farming communities of contamination risks, provide satellite and drone survey data identifying higher-risk areas, and prioritize clearance of farmland to reduce the risk that economic pressure drives farmers into contaminated fields before formal clearance.

Sources

1. HALO Trust. Ukraine Mine Action Program Reports. halotrust.org, 2022–2024.
2. UN Mine Action Service (UNMAS). Ukraine Country Program. unmas.org, 2022–2024.
3. Danish Refugee Council. Ukraine Mine Action Operations. drc.ngo, 2022–2024.
4. Ukraine Demining Authority (DSSSZR). National Mine Contamination Survey Data. gscmc.gov.ua, 2022–2024.
5. World Bank / Government of Ukraine. Rapid Damage and Needs Assessment — Mine Action Chapter. worldbank.org, 2022–2024.