Developing National Landmine Clearance Capacity in Ukraine
CISR Journal
This article is brought to you by the Center for International Stabilization and Recovery (CISR) from issue 25.1 of The Journal of Conventional Weapons Destruction available on the JMU Scholarly Commons and Issuu.com.
By Tobias Hewitt and Ronan Shenhav [ The HALO Trust ]
The mine action sector in Ukraine has seen significant growth and progression since the outbreak of hostilities along the eastern border in 2014. Continued development of government capacity is required to respond to the scale of landmine and explosive remnants of war (ERW) contamination. The HALO Trust (HALO) has supported the Ukrainian authorities to address mine contamination since 2015, through survey and large-scale mine clearance, as well as by assisting state entities such as the State Emergency Services (SES) to strengthen humanitarian mine clearance practices and procedures. HALO’s ongoing capacity-development efforts aim to enhance existing resources in order to establish a multifaceted, sustainable, and independent mine action sector capable of dealing with current and future challenges. This article explores the obstacles and opportunities in national capacity building in Ukraine, lessons from HALO’s ongoing demining training, and key priorities for Ukraine to deal with operational challenges of mine clearance...
