Part of Ukraine’s territories may become unusable for decades: causes and consequences

Ukraine’s Economy Ministry said that parts of the frontline could remain unusable for decades due to mining and the aftermath of hostilities. The agency compared the potentially dangerous areas to the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone and areas in France contaminated with unexploded ordnance from World War I.

This is reported by Euromaidan Press .

Deputy Minister of Economy of Ukraine Ihor Bezkaravayny stated that the war with Russia affected approximately 133,300 sq. km of Ukrainian territory. Of these, approximately 57,900 sq. km are agricultural lands.

He noted that some areas may remain unsafe for use for generations.

“It can be compared to the radiation zones of Chernobyl or the zone of unexploded shells left by World War I in France,” Bezkaravayny said.

According to the Ministry of Economy, annual economic losses due to pollution of territories amount to approximately $11 billion. In particular:

• about $9 billion in lost exports;
• about $1.1 billion in uncollected local tax revenues.

The department reported that the largest areas of potentially dangerous agricultural land were recorded in:

• Kharkiv region – about 475 sq. km;
• Mykolaiv region – about 205 sq. km;
• Kherson region — about 111 sq. km.

Bezkaravayny also commented on the pace of demining the territories.

“A few years ago, a widely cited report said that it would take Ukraine 700 years to clear mines. We weren’t happy with that, so we started thinking about what we could change,” the deputy minister said.

According to him, more than 15,500 hectares of land have already been cleared under the state program and returned to farmers for use. The average cost of demining is about 60,000 hryvnias per hectare.

He also reported that this year the state allocated 2 billion hryvnias within the framework of the “Ukraine” program.

“We focused on agricultural land because returning fields to productive use generates income for the farmer this and next season,” explained Igor Bezkaravayny.

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