November 26, 2020, in the conference hall of the Opera Hotel (Kyiv) the Ukrainian Deminers Association co-organized the conference “Military-Technical Cooperation between Ukraine and Croatia on the Mechanical Clearance. Experience, Status and Prospects “, which was organized by the Embassy of the Republic of Croatia in Kyiv.
The purpose of the conference is to adopt the Croatian experience in the use of multi-purpose robotic systems for humanitarian demining and develop a military-technical cooperation between Croatia and Ukraine in this subject.
The conference was attended by representatives of the Ministry of Reintegration of the Temporarily Occupied Territories of Ukraine, the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, the Armed Forces Support Command, the State Emergency Service of Ukraine, the State Special Transport Service, the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine, the National Guard of Ukraine, OSCE PCU, UNDP, INGOs and the Ukrainian company Demining Solutions – the official representative of the world leader-manufacturer of multi-purpose robotic systems Dok-Ing.
Special guests from Croatia were invited to participate in the conference. The former Deputy Head CROMAC for Quality Control and Operations made a presentation “The positive experience of Croatia in the use of mechanical clearance during humanitarian demining operations.” It is noted that the total percentage of mechanical clearance of the Croatian territory in the period 2010-2020 is 51.9%. The main equipment that provided mechanical clearance was multi-purpose robotic systems MV-4 (manufactured by Dok-Ing). In turn, Chief Technical Advisor Dok-Ing presented the capabilities of the MV-4 (light-class demining machine) and MV-10 (medium-class).
Country Director in the Swiss Foundation for Mine Action (FSD) in Ukraine, made a presentation “Experience in the use of remotely controlled demining machines in humanitarian demining operations.”
The Ukrainian Deminers Association in its report once again stressed that Ukraine is among the five countries in the world with the biggest mine problem and needs an immediate response. From 2014 to nowadays the number of victims of mines and explosive remnants of war is more than 2,000 people. To solve this problem, an active state policy and significant financial support from donor countries are needed.
As conclusion participants highlighted that Ukraine needs multi-purpose robotic systems MV-4/MV-10 to save deminers’ life and increase the effectiveness of humanitarian demining in the east of our country. It should be noted that the conference was organized offline and online, given the large number of stakeholders and the existing constraints caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Ukrainian Deminers Association expresses its gratitude to the Embassy of the Republic of Croatia in Ukraine and other participants of the conference for their concern about the Ukrainian mine action problem.
