Ukraine is urging companies to invest in an unlikely area: minefields.
According to the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade, Ukraine is the most heavily mined country in the world and is trying to turn demining into a business model by incorporating the profit motive to speed up a process that would otherwise drag on for decades.
Ukrainian officials say about a third of the country’s territory may be contaminated with landmines and unexploded ordnance, posing a major threat to civilians in the coming years. Government agencies and foreign charities currently carry out most demining work, but given the speed at which the government’s 16 certified demining teams work, it would take hundreds of years to clear the land.
That is why the Ukrainian Ministry of Economic Development is trying to attract private entrepreneurs and promote innovation. The first test of its commercial demining initiative took place on Wednesday at a site in central Ukraine, where three companies demonstrated their methods for detecting and destroying mines.
“We need to look for different ways to de-mine our country,” said Yulia Svyrdenko, Ukraine’s economy minister. “Otherwise demining will take hundreds of years and we have to live and develop our economy now.”
The initiative includes humanitarian demining, or the removal of mines that remain years or decades after fighting has ended. It is different from mine clearing in combat – a task carried out only by the military.
Creating a free market for demining was a priority for the Ministry of Economic Affairs. The plan would require private landowners – farmers or local governments – to auction contracts to clear their sites in forested areas or open fields, which would involve varying degrees of difficulty and danger. The ministry has now received 69 applications from private companies; If a company is certified, it can submit an offer.
The initiative includes encouraging domestic innovation that creates products for export to other countries struggling with mines, rather than simply allowing Ukraine’s minefields to be used as testing grounds for established foreign defense companies.
“It is not our goal to make money, because we want to de-mine our land,” said Riabchenko Ruslan, a designer at the Postup Foundation, a group involved in the project. “But once the war is over, we can export our technology” for demining and other niche applications such as archaeology.
One of the proponents of the concept is Howard G. Buffett, a son of billionaire investor Warren Buffett and director of the global corporation Berkshire Hathaway. The younger Mr. Buffett’s charitable foundation supports demining efforts in Ukraine.
“It’s really important to create an environment where people are trying to offer their best services and the best innovations to achieve this,” Buffett said.
A large drone carries a magnetic sensor in a setup designed by the Postup Foundation. Photo credit: Brendan Hoffman for The New York Times Howard G. Buffett demonstrating new demining technologies on Wednesday. Photo credit: Brendan Hoffman for The New York Times
Beyond saving lives, clearing agricultural land will play a role in reducing global food prices, Buffett said.
On Wednesday, Mr. Buffett met the first Ukrainian farmer to take part in a demining auction and watched the three companies demonstrate their work, including showcasing mine-detection drones.
They worked in a field of dry, unharvested soy that was lined with white and red ribbons and signs with small skulls warning of mine dangers, a common sight in Ukraine. Mining experts spent two months clearing about 120 hectares in this one field alone using traditional methods of careful probing and walking with metal detectors.
The presentation on drone detection was aimed at an industry in which no country wants to excel. Still, it was a sad and hopeful moment at the same time. “You will see that Ukraine is a world leader in such technologies,” Buffett said.