Ukraine is asking companies to invest in an unexpected sector: minefields.
As the world’s most mined country, according to the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade, Ukraine is trying to develop a business model for demining, with a profit motive to speed up a process that could last decades.
Ukrainian officials say about a third of the country’s territory is littered with landmines and unexploded ordnance, posing a serious threat to civilians for years to come. State agencies and foreign charities currently do most of the demining, but at the rate of work of the government’s 16 demining teams, they say it will take hundreds of years to clear the country.
Thus, the Ministry of Economic Development of Ukraine is trying to attract private sector entrepreneurs and encourage innovation. The first test of its commercial mine clearance initiative took place on Wednesday at a site in central Ukraine, where three companies demonstrated their mine detection and destruction methods.
“We need to find different ways to remove mines from our territory,” said Ukraine’s Finance Minister Yulia Sviridenko. “Otherwise, it will take hundreds of years to clear the mines and we need to survive now and develop our economy.”
This activity involves the decontamination for humanitarian purposes or the removal of mines that remain years or decades after the end of a war. This is different from clearing mines during combat, which is done exclusively by the military.
Establishing a free market for demonetisation is a priority of the Finance Ministry. Their plan is for private landowners – farmers or local governments – to auction off contracts to clear their land in forested or open country areas, which can involve varying degrees of difficulty and risk. The ministry has now received 69 applications from private companies; Once the company is approved, it can submit the proposal.
The initiative involves encouraging local innovation that creates products for export to other mining-affected countries, rather than allowing Ukraine’s mining areas to be used as a testing ground for existing foreign defense industry companies.
“Our goal is not to make money because we want to remove mines from our country,” said Ryabchenko Ruslan, designer of the Postup Foundation, a group involved in the project. “But when the war is over, we will be able to export our technology” for other specialized applications such as demining and archaeology.
Proponents of this concept include Howard G. Buffett is the son of billionaire investor Warren Buffett and director of the global Berkshire Hathaway Group. Mr. Buffett’s Younger Charitable Foundation supports mining sanctions efforts in Ukraine.
“To achieve that it’s really important to create an environment where people will strive to provide the best service and the best innovation,” Buffett said.
Buffett said that in addition to saving lives, removing mines from farmland would play a role in lowering global food prices.
On Wednesday, Buffett met with the first Ukrainian farmer to participate in a mine clearance auction and highlighted three companies showcasing their work, including offering drones designed to detect mines.
They worked in dry, unharvested soybean fields, surrounded by red and white ribbons and small skull signs warning of the danger of mines, a common sight in Ukraine. Sappers, using traditional screening methods and moving around with metal detectors, have been working in the area for just two months, clearing around 120 acres of land.
The presentation on drone detection was aimed at an industry in which no country wants to be left out. However, it was a sad and hopeful moment at the same time. “We will see Ukraine leading the world in this technology”, Buffet said.
