USUBC is pleased to offer to our members the Alert on “Demining Ukraine to Support American Investments”, kindly shared with us by The U.S. Department of State.
Demining Ukraine to Support American Investments
The U.S. Department of State supports demining operations across Ukraine that remove landmines and unexploded ordnance, saving lives and restoring land to productive use. The Government of Ukraine has recognized demining as a top priority for its economic recovery and estimates that as much as 132,000 square kilometers may be contaminated by explosive hazards. Contaminated areas include vast areas of farmland, critical mineral deposits, critical infrastructure, and transportation routes, posing a significant obstacle to commercial activity.
The Department of State seeks to facilitate investments by American companies in Ukraine and wants to know whether any planned investments or current operations are being negatively impacted by the known or suspected presence of explosive hazards. We currently support demining teams across several oblasts of Ukraine that may be available to survey and/or demine land of interest to American businesses. We welcome your company to submit requests directly to the Office of Weapons Removal and Abatement (WRA). The requests should describe your company’s planned investment, how explosive hazards are posing an obstacle, and the expected benefit to your company and the U.S. economy if the land becomes safe to use. Please send requests or questions directly to Michael Tirre, Program Manager, at TirreM@state.gov. We also support explosive ordnance risk education (EORE) teams that can provide safety briefings to staff members that may be at risk of encountering explosive hazards – please let us know if that would be of interest.
We cannot promise that our demining resources will be available to support your company – it depends on the number of requests received, the availability of demining teams, the scope of work, and securing the necessary approvals from Ukraine’s demining authorities – but our aim is supporting American businesses whenever and however we can.
Non-American businesses may request our demining assistance if you can make a clear and compelling case for how it will support American businesses and U.S. economic interests.
At this time, we are not offering to provide new grants or contracts for demining operations, though we recognize that many U.S., European, and Ukrainian organizations receiving this notice have demining expertise. Rather, we are offering to use our existing projects to demine specific areas that advance U.S. economic interests. We also encourage companies to consider supporting demining operations directly, and we welcome the opportunity to collaborate with you should you choose to do so.
Finally, we welcome American businesses to inform us of their products that are applicable to demining operations, such as drones, detectors, protective gear, and demining machines. We defer to our project implementers on what tools and technology they procure, but we encourage them to procure American-made items whenever possible. You are also welcome to reach out directly to our current project implementers to see if they are interested in your products: the Danish Refugee Council (DRC), the Swiss Foundation for Demining (FSD), the HALO Trust, the Mines Advisory Group (MAG), Norwegian People’s Aid (NPA), and Tetra Tech.
