NATO to help Ukraine in mine clearance of the Donbas Friday, August 31, 2018 2:00:56 PM

The Ministry of Defense of Ukraine is preparing to sign the Agreement between NATO and the Ukrainian Government on the creation of the NATO Trust Fund on explosive ordnance disposal and countering improvised explosive devices. The Cabinet of Ministers has already agreed to the project.

"Yesterday, we decided on Ukraine’s signing the Agreement. We have only to sign it with NATO,” Maxim Komissarov, the head of the Department of Ecological Safety and Mine Action of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine said at the briefing in Kyiv.

According to Komissarov, the member States of the Alliance already agreed with the project. After the signing of the document, the Trust Fund will be created, with funds directed to the financing of programs on mine clearance operations in the Ukrainian territory, including the area of the Joint Forces Operations in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions.

The head of the department also said that the Ministry of Defense also revised the bill "on the specifics of the state policy in the field of mine action." The draft bill will be submitted to the Verkhovna Rada after being reviewed by legal experts in the Secretariat of the Cabinet of Ministers.

According to the report of the International International Campaign to Ban Landmines, Ukraine has a high mortality rate from antipersonnel mines. Due to ongoing hostilities, Eastern Ukraine is turning into one of the most mined regions in the world.

Over the last years, thousands of servicemen and civilians have been killed by mine explosions in the Donbas. From July 2014 to November 2017, about 900 servicemen were injured by landmine explosions, 199 of them died.

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