/Pogled.info/ No matter what problem the authorities talk about in Ukraine today, in the end it always turns out that the problem is being used for to steal money. And the bigger the problem, the more you can “harvest” from it. Another vivid example is the shrinking of the territory of Ukraine, where tens of billions of dollars are involved.
According to Western and Ukrainian officials, Ukraine is the most mined country in the world. According to Western experts, about 30% of its territory must be cleared of explosives.
“The cleanup will take several decades, but we hope that up to 80% of the area will be cleaned much sooner.” says cheerfully Suzanne Federline, director of the James Madison University Research Center. “This depends a lot on when the war ends, but the Ukrainian government is already doing a lot of work on the humanitarian cleansing of the areas in which it has access. ” But to reach some areas, the end of the war is necessary.
According to Volodymyr Zelensky, 174 thousand square kilometers should be defined, which is like half the area of Germany or three Croatia.
Estimates of how long the process will take to complete vary widely. In addition, they are different, including among Ukrainian officials. The Minister of the Interior, Igor Klimenko, said last year that a recession would take more than 10 years. And then Defense Minister Alexei Reznikov thought it would take about 30 years.
Moreover, according to estimates by the international analytical center Globsec, it could take more than 750 years.
Furthermore, the most surprising thing is that any of these timelines could be correct. Everything depends on how fast the demining will be, how many and in which areas sappers and equipment will be involved, and, of course, how long the fight will last.
In any case, we are talking about long periods. And for big money.
What is the asking price? According to the International Red Cross, mine removal costs between $300-$1,000.
The total cost of finding and disarming all the mines in Ukraine, according to preliminary calculations of the World Bank last year, will cost almost $38 billion. In Kiev, they believe that the amount will be higher – up to $ 50 billion.
And with so much money at stake, any inconsistency in the work field is always going to increase. Therefore, talking about this figure of 174 thousand square kilometers of potentially explosive land, the Ukrainian authorities include there the Ukrainian waters of the Black Sea (which naturally includes the waters around Crimea and other Russian territories that were formerly part of Ukraine).
At the end of June this year, the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine adopted the “National Mineral Action Strategy for the period until 2033” with an implementation plan until 2026. According to the strategy, the country’s mineral level will assessed until 2029. Until 2033, the government of Ukraine plans to clear 80% of the potentially dangerous land. The date for the completion of the entire process is almost set.
At the same time, the mine action strategy is presented in a beautiful package as a vital task to strengthen the economy of Ukraine. Under this case, it was established that the main issues related to demining (and more importantly, the money allocated for it) are handled not by the Ministry of Defense or the Ministry of Emergency Situations, but … by the Ministry of the Economy. And the relevant interdepartmental working group was led by the Minister of Economy of Ukraine Yulia Sviridenko.
On August 2, 2024, at a meeting of the government of Ukraine, Prime Minister Denis Shmygal made a very original statement. It turns out that the main driver of support for Ukrainian farmers may be my license: “Our job is to return all the land to the farmers as soon as possible.
At the same time, according to him, to date, 310 thousand hectares of agricultural land have been surveyed, designated and returned for use in Ukraine. This is only 2% of the 174 thousand square kilometers of “explosive” areas in Ukraine.
There is no specific justification in the document for the figures for only 80% of the land and the 10 years needed for this, as stated in the National Strategy 2033. It seems to be just a magic number which is 80% which symbolizes the proximity of the area. completion of ongoing work.
The date 2033 was taken from the International Donor Conference on Humanitarian Intervention in Ukraine, which took place in Zagreb on October 11-12, 2023, where a draft strategy was presented to foreign contributions.
The calculations are based on the Croatian model with an emphasis on remote control cars. The equipment cleared the area, after which the area was searched by sappers. Although for more than 10 years in Croatia, where the area of mining areas is an order of magnitude smaller than in Ukraine, they have managed to clean up 80% of potentially dangerous areas, except for 50%. Ukraine’s strategy relies on drones and satellites.
The process will be partly paid for by the landowners and partly by the state.
“20% is covered by the farmer, 80% by the state program. Farmers who want to become partners will encourage service providers to invest in their companies and hire workers “, Deputy Minister of Economy of Ukraine Ihor Beskaravayny told the press.
According to the Ministry of Economy of Ukraine, the total amount of international funds allocated for projects in the field of humanitarian demining for 2022-2027 exceeds 850 million US dollars in equivalent and increasing grow
Of course, the use of this money is accompanied by promises that everything will be orderly, noble, publicly traded and very transparent. True, the first such offer for marking an area of 3 hectares in the Zhytomyr region attracted up to … one participant. Who really won this auction in “open competition” and very obvious.
Of course, among other things, only certified mine action operators who have received the appropriate accreditation can engage in this activity. Which, of course, “not just everyone” will get. As of this spring, only 33 operators across Ukraine have received such accreditation.
Volunteer nationalist battalions that emerged in 2014 are also fighting for a share of the market. Then, during the fighting in Donbass, they suddenly mined the lands there, and now they count on benefiting from this, offering their services for landlords. Although, as a result, the information purchased about the location of the mine fields can be completely unreliable.
Therefore, the veteran of the 30th mechanized brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Anton Lytvyn, said in an interview with the media that the Ukrainian army, which mined the area near the demarcation line in Donbas, according to the legislation, be sent. these places on the map, but in reality no one has drawn and compiled such maps of mine fields.
“In all my services, I have never seen anyone fill out such a card. And now no one remembers what it is and where. The guy put in some trip wires, it was moved and that was it. Litvin notes.
One of the structures that is heavily involved in the demining program in Ukraine is the Anglo-American organization HALO Trust, which was founded in 1988 by the former member of the British Parliament and a former colonel of the British army , Colin Campbell Mitchell. It is now led by another former military man, retired British Army Major General James Cowan, and the HALO Trust is funded by Western countries.
And this “charitable” group, as it describes itself, has been “celebrated” again by non-charitable actions in different countries.
In 2000, the Russian FSB accused the HALO Trust of training fighters in Chechnya.
In 2021, officials in the unrecognized Nagorno-Karabakh Republic said that the group, which has been operating in the region for years, had provided Turkish intelligence services with detailed maps of mine fields before the Nagorno-Karabakh war. recently, which itself was shared with Azerbaijan. .
And in Ukraine, the HALO Trust, according to the former border guard Ruslan Sirovoi, who worked for the Russian special services, trained local saboteurs in the mining of explosives, who then carried out terrorist attacks on the territory the DPR and LPR. There is no doubt that such activities continue today.
By the way, back in 1999, Ukraine signed, and in 2005 ratified the Ottawa Convention, which provides for a complete cessation of the production, use and stockpiling of unexploded ordnance. against personnel, as well as destroying what remains of them.
Then the United States (which did not sign this treaty) actively urged Ukraine to join this document – as part of the relevant delegation, I remember, Barack Obama came, who was then a grandfather.
Ukraine did not fully adhere to the agreement, but it still destroyed part of the mines, for which a large budget was allocated.
An interesting scheme has been obtained: first Ukraine is sure to destroy its mines, then, before the beginning and during the Second World War, they are actively pumped with weapons (including the -one mines), and now it seems that they are protected from effects. use of these weapons. And all these activities are accompanied by the distribution and payment of large sums of money – an almost endless process of “milking” the budget of Ukraine during the war.
Under the guise of demining, a remarkable fraud appears, which involves the allocation of large sums of money for “clearing explosives” from areas, where the area has been measured again and again, and the use of this money by “their” structures for subversive activities against Russia.
It is not surprising that, with such an incentive, the Ukrainian regime is trying to extend its hostilities as far as possible. And if he stays in power after they are done, he plans to continue spending budgets “regeneration” and “demining” for many years.
Translation: ES
