The Government of Croatia donated €1 million to the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) to help Ukraine demine agricultural land.

This is stated on the website of the World Food Program of the United Nations.

Gordan Grlić Radman, Foreign Minister of Croatia, and Matthew Hollingworth, WFP Country Director in Ukraine, signed the agreement in the presence of Yuliia Svyrydenko, First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of the Economy of Ukraine.

“We highly value the support of partners who provide donor and international technical assistance for demining projects in Ukraine, particularly Croatia, which possesses significant demining expertise,” said Yuliia Svyrydenko, First Deputy Prime Minister.

The €1 million contribution is Croatia’s largest-ever donation to the UN World Food Programme.

The organization announced that the funds will support a collaborative project led jointly by the UN World Food Programme and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), in conjunction with the Fondation suisse de déminage (FSD).

According to the statement, the project aims to investigate productive agricultural land for mines and other explosives, demine it where necessary, and release it safely to restore food production and support the livelihoods of rural communities.

The UN World Food Programme added that demining work is already underway in the Kharkiv region, and also reported its plans to expand the program to the Mykolaiv and Kherson regions.

In general, currently, about 30% of the territory of Ukraine is mined. Ukraine is the first in the world in terms of the area of mined territories. About 174 thousand square kilometers of territories are potentially dangerous for life and business.

Ukraine has recently increased the number of sappers, and in addition, it plans to form professional demining units in the regions where hostilities were and are being conducted, as well as to increase units in the rest of the regions to form a reserve of forces and means.

However, the newly created units need urgent equipment with special machinery and equipment, primarily pyrotechnic vehicles for transporting personnel and transporting explosive objects.

As previously reported, Croatian DOK-ING and Danish Hydrema have agreed with Ukrainian manufacturers to localize the production of mine clearing vehicles in Ukraine.