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Key developments since May 2000: Ukraine has disclosed that its antipersonnel mines stockpile consists of 6.35 million PFM and PMN mines. Ukraine and Canada signed a framework agreement for destruction of the PMN mines, and discussions are underway with NATO’s Maintenance and Supply Agency on a PMN destruction project. In 2000, Ukrainian demining units joined UN demining operations in Lebanon and Sierra Leone, and a Ukrainian-Polish Joint Peacekeeping Battalion started demining operations in Kosovo. Ukraine is developing a Crimea Humanitarian Demining Program.
Ukraine signed the Mine Ban Treaty on 24 February 1999, shortly after Ukraine had signed an agreement with Canada regarding cooperation in the destruction of antipersonnel mines stockpiles.[1] Ukraine has not yet ratified the Mine Ban Treaty. The key stumbling block continues to be working out details of the destruction of its significant landmine stockpile. Ukrainian officials insist a destruction plan and financing must be in place and underway before taking steps to ratify the treaty. There has been no movement on the issue in the Parliament, where it rests with its Committee of Defense and National Security.[2]
In July 2001, Deputy Foreign Minister Ihor Kharchenko wrote to the ICBL: “In response to your letter urging ratification by Ukraine of the [Mine Ban Treaty] let me assure you that Ukraine fully recognizes the necessity and significance of such a step.... The intention to get rid of this type of weapon is a firm position of our country.... In this context I deem it necessary to underline that Ukraine respects its political commitments pursuant to this document and is determined to implement it with a great sense of responsibility. But the lack of the technical and financial resources remains to be the major obstacle for stockpiles elimination in 4-year-term, as stipulated by the provisions of the Mine Ban Treaty.”[3]
Ukraine participated in the Second Meeting of States Parties to the Mine Ban Treaty in September 2000, as well as the intersessional Standing Committee meetings in December 2000 and May 2001. Ukraine voted in favor of the November 2000 UN General Assembly resolution calling for universalization of the Mine Ban Treaty, as it had in previous years.
Additionally, government representatives attended regional landmine conferences in Minsk, Belarus in April 2000; in the Harrisburg, Virginia (U.S.) in April; in Yalta and Sevastopol in October; in Tampa, Florida (U.S.) in January 2001; and in Budapest, Hungary in February 2001.
The government ratified Amended Protocol II of the 1980 Convention on Conventional Weapons (CCW) on 21 September 1999. Ukraine attended the Second Annual Conference of States Parties to Amended Protocol II in December 2000. In a statement, a representative of the Ukraine said, “Despite the fact that Protocol II does not commit any state to carry out the destruction of its landmines, Ukrainian authorities have come to conclusion that the landmines, the use of which is restricted or prohibited pursuant to the provisions of the Amended Protocol II, should be eliminated sooner or later. Taking in consideration the large number of [antipersonnel landmine] stockpiles on Ukrainian territory, as well as a necessity to eliminate other types of ordnance and munitions, my country should find considerable financial resources in its scarce budget to allocate them for this purpose.... Ukraine really needs substantive financial and other assistance from our actual and eventual partners.”[4]
On 17 October 2000, Landmine Monitor researchers for the CIS met in Yalta and traveled to Sevastapol. At a roundtable in the mayor's office, city officials and military engineers discussed Sevastopol’s current problems with mines and UXO with the meeting’s participants and local media. The researchers visited a site near the city where Soviet troops had stored more than 100,000 tons of munitions in caves in a mountain in Hospitalna, Inkerman district at the beginning of WWII. Local and national media, including television, covered the Sevastopol visit.[5]
Under the Soviet Union, Ukraine produced components for Soviet landmines.[6] Representatives of the Ukrainian government and military have repeatedly stated in a number of fora that the country does not manufacture landmines and has not since independence.[7]
Ukraine enacted a moratorium on the export of antipersonnel mines from August 1995 to September 1999.[8] That moratorium was extended through 2003.[9] It is not believed that Ukraine has imported antipersonnel mines, having inherited such large stocks from the USSR.
It had previously been estimated that Ukraine had approximately 10.1 million antipersonnel mines in its stockpiles, inherited after the disintegration of the Soviet Union.[10] In late 2000, Ukraine reported new information about its stockpile during an international assessment mission to Ukraine. Instead of 10.1 million, the stockpile numbered 6.35 million antipersonnel mines, including 5,947,596 PFM and 404,903 PMNs.[11] (For previous discussion on stockpiles, their locations and developments in the joint destruction project, which has moved more slowly than anticipated, see Landmine Monitor Report 2000, pp. 786-787.)
During 2000-2001, the Ukrainian Interagency Working Team, headed by Lt. Gen. Vorobiyov, Commander of the Engineer Forces, has coordinated preparations for the Ukraine–Canada technical partnership program and among the Ukrainian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Industrial Policy, the Ministry of Defense and Spivdruzhnist Corporation.[12] During this period Spivdruzhnist Corporation has worked on the technical program and on creating new means to destroy PMN-type mines. In October–November 2000, an expert from the Geneva International Humanitarian Demining Center, at the request of the Canadian Government, made site visits to factories to assess their capacity for receiving landmines from stockpiles and for the destruction of PMN mines. It is estimated that the cost of developing the technology and the industrial capacity for the destruction of the PMN mines could reach US$800,000.[13]
Representatives of the Ministry of Defense, Shostka State Scientific Research Institute of Chemical Products and Spivdruzhnist Corporation took part in the Budapest Seminar on the Destruction of PFM-1 Mines on 1-2 February 2001. During the seminar, the Ukrainian delegation met with the Canadian Mine Action Team, which also went on to Ukraine from 4-6 February, where they met with the Ukrainian Interdepartmental Working Team. During this trip, the draft of a framework agreement for destruction of PMN mines between the Ukraine Cabinet of Ministers and the government of Canada was worked out.
During his trip to Ottawa on 25-26 March 2001, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Anatoly Zlenko and his Canadian counterpart John Manley signed the framework agreement for the project for destruction of PMN antipersonnel mines. In a press release, the Ukrainian Embassy noted, “The framework agreement defines the mechanism for implementation of the project and opens the way for ‘practical work’ with donor countries on financing the project. This project will soon be presented in Brussels with the goal of finding donor nations willing to finance the destruction of antipersonnel mines in Ukraine in partnership with Canada.”[14]
It is expected that support for the PMN project will come from NATO and its Maintenance and Supply Agency (NAMSA), based on the model of NAMSA’s project for destruction of Albanian mine stockpiles. Representatives of NAMSA visited Ukraine from 3-9 March 2001 to discuss the issue, accompanied by the Canadian Defense Attaché to Ukraine, who is managing the program. According to Spivdruzhnist management, it would take about three months after agreement between NAMSA and Ukraine to begin the program itself, and thus it projects a start date for the end of 2001.[15]
Work has also begun on putting together a tender for destruction of the PFM mines, and could be issued by late 2001. Estimates of the cost of destruction cannot be confidently made until technology for destruction is clearly determined, but it seems that the cost of destroying the PFMs alone could be between $10-15 million.
The Ukraine Ministry of Defense states that antipersonnel mines have not been used on Ukrainian territory since WWII. However, Ukrainian police have recorded individual cases of landmine use for criminal purposes. In 2000 there were 150 explosive incidents in Ukraine and the police confiscated more than 950 explosive devices.[16] The Ministry of Emergency Situations reported 45 incidents of criminal use of mines and UXO in 2000.[17]
Ukraine is still affected by mines and unexploded ordnance from World War II. The Ministry of Defense (MoD), Ministry of Emergency Situations (MES), and the Bombs Disposal Division of the Ministry of Interior’s Special Police Demining Teams are responsible for demining operations.[18] The Secret Service of Ukraine also has a demining unit.[19] (See also Landmine Monitor Report 1999, p.788.) The Ministry of Defense has 135 demining teams, of which 12-13 teams work daily to clear mines and UXO.
For clearance purposes, Ukrainian is divided into 497 areas of responsibility; of these, the Ministry of Defense is responsible for demining 442 areas, and the Ministry of Emergency Situations is responsible for demining in the remaining fifty-five areas.[20] All types of mines and UXO (except bombs) are rendered harmless and eliminated by demining teams of MoD and MES. The teams from MES eliminate aerial bombs regardless to their location. In some cases (for example IEDs, improvised explosive devices) the special police demining teams are employed.
In 2000, demining/EOD teams in the Ukraine cleared 139,534 explosive objects: 134,294 artillery shells, 3,029 mines, 1,843 grenades, and 368 aerial bombs. This is a 26% increase over 1999. The Ministry of Emergency Situations demining teams carried out 1,009 demining/EOD reconnaissance operations and 562 clearance operations in 2000. The operations conducted by the MES comprised 56% of all clearance operations in 2000.[21] The rest are conducted by the military and police.
From January to March 2001, 1,632 explosive objects were detected and cleared: 847 artillery shells, 405 mines, 362 grenades, and 18 aerial bombs. The Ministry of Emergency Situations demining teams carried out 180 demining/EOD reconnaissance operations and 188 clearance operations between January-March 2001.[22] This is an 11% increase over the totals for the first quarter of 2000. These operations conducted by the MES comprised 65% of all clearance operations between January and March.[23] The cost of maintaining one demining team is about $500.[24]
In Sevastopol, considerable quantities of mines and UXO are reported to police and removed and destroyed each year. There are specific locations of mines and UXO that the city is grappling with, including the harbor bay, which is littered with ordnance and sea mines. During their October 2000 meeting, Landmine Monitor researchers visited a site near the city where Soviet troops stored more than 100,000 tons of munitions in caves at the beginning of World War II. At the end of the war, it was not possible to remove the munitions so a decision was taken to explode them. Now the arsenal is buried in the hill but is still live and very dangerous. Children retrieving explosives for resale have been killed and injured. The engineers are currently conducting a survey of the problem and are developing a plan for removal of the ordnance. While there is a recognized need to deal with the mine/UXO problem over the long-term and a directive from the Ministry of Defense to do so, a major problem remains lack of funds.[25]
In February 2001, the Ministry of Emergency Situations, jointly with the Financial Ministry, the Ministry of the Economy, the Justice Ministry and Sevastopol Engineering Ecology Research Institute began developing the Crimea Humanitarian Demining Program. The core goal of the program is to reduce the mine menace in the region and to create safe conditions for using land, water and other resources. The main tasks of the program are designing a detailed database on the location of mines and UXO; survey, marking and mapping of suspected areas; and demining and eliminating UXO by the most optimal means available.
The government is planning to allocate about US$4 million between 2000-2005 for the Crimea program. “Podolskvzrivprom,” a demining company created by Ministry of Defense for participation in domestic and foreign demining operations, will prepare for work in the Crimea demining program between 2001- 2004.[26]
As result of limited financial resources in the last year, Ukraine has suspended its participation in a research project for new mine detection technologies that were being worked on at a Ukrainian-Turkish research lab. Now, the Ukrainian staff that worked in the lab have a direct contract with Turkey.[27]
Special laboratory Police of Ukraine, the Ukrainian Space Agency “Magellan,” and the Makeevka Institute of the mining industry have continued activity and research related to landmines[28] The Ukrainian Space Agency “Magellan, continues it research on the development of technology for the detection of mines from aircraft and helicopters and works in partnership on this effort with Ukrainian Ministry of Defense.[29]
During 2000, training sessions of Ukrainian demining units preparing to take part in UN demining operations in Lebanon and Africa were carried out at the International Demining Training Center (IDTC) in Kamenets Podolsky.[30] In June 2000, these units, part of a Special Joint Peacekeeping Demining Battalion created by the Ministry of Defense, started participating in new UN demining operations in Lebanon. The Ukrainian deminers tested 36 hectares of terrain and 40 kilometers of roads, destroying 2,500 mines and ammunition items. More than three hundred inhabitants of Lebanon received medical care from its medical company.[31]
During the summer of 2000, the Lvov Frontier Guards prepared a team of deminers, with twenty mine detecting dogs, for Ukrainian demining units. Members of the team were selected by the Western Operation Command of the Ministry of Defense, and have had military service in Afghanistan.[32]
In July 2000, the Ukrainian-Polish Joint Peacekeeping Battalion started peacekeeping and demining operations in Kosovo under KFOR Command.[33] Also, in December 2000, Ukrainian demining units began participation in new UN demining operations in Sierra Leone.[34]
By June 2001, it is expected that training sessions at International Demining Training Center will not only focus on deminers, but also on data collectors, mapmakers, minefield markers and other specialists. Between 19-26 February 2001, a delegation of French Engineers visited the IDTC, for an exchange of experiences. Through a Ukraine/France plan of cooperation, an expert from the French Armed Forces Engineering Training Center has been working at the Center.
There are no systematic mine awareness programs in Ukraine. During mine clearance operations, deminers meet with the local population and educate them on the rules of behavior when they come across UXO. In the Ukraine in 2000, children discovered more than 750 air bombs, shells, mines and UXO from World War II, all of which were neutralized by demining units.[35]
In April 2000, boys from Selische in the Vinnitsa area discovered old munitions in the forest. Sappers then found three underground arsenals of ammunition. Deminers of the Ministry of Emergency Situations detected 235 mines and UXO during clearance operations.[36]
During 2000, a mine killed one man in the Zhitomir area and a fifteen-year-old boy was killed in Crimea while attempting to dismantle an artillery shell. Another man was killed during criminal use of an antipersonnel mine (location unknown and not recorded by the MES). In four other mine incidents, fourteen people were injured, including five children, as a result of reckless handling of ammunition.[37] Landmine casualties continued to occur in 2001 with two adults and one child killed and five injured, including two children, in the period March to May 2001.
An estimated 1,500 civilians have been killed by mines and UXO since 1945.[38] There are an estimated 80,000 mine and UXO victims in Ukraine today, of which twenty thousand need prosthetic devices.[39]
Ukraine has over 5 million veterans of war, including 357,022 invalids. The country has thirty hospitals for veterans and war victims.[40] There are also regional centers, special sanatoriums and rehabilitation centers. The main institutions for assistance to mine victims is the Social Rehabilitation Center in Kiev, and the “Ukrprotez” State Corporation, which provides upper and lower limb orthopedic goods, and works in close contact with the Otto Bock Company in Germany. Psychological support is available to mine victims in hospitals.
Only the Ukrainian Republican Medical Social Center and the hospital "Lisova Polyana", both near Kiev, have financing from the state budget. Other centers and hospitals rely on regional administrations for funding from local budgets. More than 100,000 veterans and victims of war, including victims of mines have medical rehabilitation in hospitals and special centers in Ukraine every year.
Ukraine has five main sanatoriums, with a total of 2,030 beds, under the Ministry of Labor and Social Policy for the medical aftercare of veterans and invalids. The Department for Veterans Affairs also has one sanatorium “Semashko” in Crimea in Yalta. In 2000, 2,494 veterans and 264 invalids, including victims of mines received treatment in “Semashko.” According to the national law for veterans and disabled people, in 2000 Ukraine provided financial support for medical rehabilitation in sanatoriums for 29,469 invalids of war including 3,150 victims of landmines.
Because of budget constraints the government is not able to finance all the needs of the disabled particularly in regards to the provision of affordable medicines. An estimated $400 million per annum is needed for this purpose, however; only $11 million is available. To assist in this situation, since 1999, the Organization of Veterans of Ukraine, a member of the ICBL-Ukraine, with the support of the President of Ukraine and the government, has set up more than 500 branches for veterans in medical shops to provide medical services at low prices.
Ukraine continues discussions with Pakistan and Afghanistan on the development of a program of humanitarian cooperation for assistance and rehabilitation of mine victims. However, Ukraine does not have the financial resources to fund the program. Funding from international sources is required for the proposed prosthetic repair workshops. Before starting the proposed program Ukraine has requested maps of Soviet Army minefields laid during Afghan war from Russia.[41]
Ukraine has enacted laws providing measures for the social rehabilitation of disabled people and a special council for the disabled was created in May 1999.[42]
In 2000, the government of Ukraine fulfilled its budget obligations and financed the activities of the orthopedic centers in full. In the 2001 budget estimates, it is proposed to increase the benefits for the social needs of invalids by fifty percent. However, some of the benefits for veterans, who had mine traumas and contusions but are not category 1 or 2 invalids, will be paused.[43] For the first time in three years, the government was able to fully fund the social and medical programs for invalids and victims of war.[44]
In October 2000, Committees of the Supreme Council of Ukraine considered the situation concerning social and medical aftercare of invalids and adopted a resolution on the reorganization of budget policy and interdepartmental activities in 2000/2001 for the Ministry of Health, Ministry of Labor and Social Protection, and Department for Veterans Affairs. The Department for Veterans Affairs has acted with a proposal to the government to introduce a budget estimate for 2002 for the renovation of "Semashko" sanatorium for invalids of war.
On 3 December 2000, President Leonid Kuchma took part in the annual activities marking the World Day of the Disabled, which also coincided with the anniversary of the signing of the Mine Ban Treaty. During his visit to the Social Rehabilitation Center exhibit, the President stated again that the country would make efforts to expand social protection for war victims and the disabled.[45]
In 2000-2001, the President accepted a series of state decrees and orders for improving the conditions of social protection and medical support for veterans, invalids, and victims of war, including mine victims, in Ukraine.[46] A “Day of Grief” is commemorated on 22 June each year to mark the first day of the Second World War for the former USSR and Ukraine. The Presidential decree adopted each year to mark this day obliges all state and local administrations to work more actively for veterans and victims of war.
On 8 May 2001 the President of Ukraine and members of the government visited the main hospital for war veterans in Cibly, near Kiev. The President saw the real situation and quality of life and rehabilitation for veterans and disabled people. As a result of the visit to the hospital President Kucma asked the government and local administration about the possibility of strengthening the medical system for veterans and victims of war in all regions of Ukraine and all local medical centers and hospitals.
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[1] “Memorandum on Mutually Beneficial Cooperation Between the Government of Canada and the Government of Ukraine on Destruction of Antipersonnel Landmines Stockpiled by the Armed Forces of Ukraine and Prohibited by the [Mine Ban Treaty],” 28 January 1999.
[2] Interview with Yuri Polurez, Deputy of Head Disarmament Department, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 13 December 2000.
[3] Letter from Ihor Kharchenko, Deputy Foreign Minister, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, to Elizabeth Bernstein, ICBL Coordinator, 9 July 2001.
[4] Statement to the Second Annual Conference of CCW Amended Protocol II, 12 December 2000.
[5] Yalta CIS Landmine Monitor meeting report, October 2000.
[6] Annual Report, Ukrainian Peacekeepers Veterans Association (UPVA), 1999.
[7] These have included statements by Ambassador Volodymyr Furkalo at the Treaty Signing Conference, Ottawa, Canada, 4 December 1997; by Mykhailo Osnach, Representative of Ukraine at the Budapest Regional Conference, 26-28 March 1998; and by Colonel M. Mikhailenko, Ukrainian Engineers Corps, Minsk Landmine Conference, 6-7 March 2000.
[8] United Nations, Country Report: Ukraine, at http://www.un.org/Depts/Landmine/country/ukraine.htm.
[9] Order of the Prime Minister, #426, 22 March 1999.
[10] Mine Action Database, Canadian Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade. While 10.1 million had been the commonly accepted number of the stockpile, other Ukrainian sources had put the number at 9.6 million and Sergey Pashinsky, Head of Ukrainian Mine Action Center, put it as high as 11 million speaking at the Minsk International landmines Conference in March 2000. Informal estimates had put the number of PFMs close to nine million and an additional one million for PMNs.
[11] In October-November 2000, an expert from the Geneva International Center for Humanitarian Demining made an assessment mission to Ukraine, at the request of the Canadian government, at which time the number of mines in stockpiles was disclosed.
[12] Statements by Colonel M. Mikhailenko, Ukrainian Engineers Corps, Yalta Landmine Conference, 16-18 October 2000. “Spivdruzhnist” Corporation has also been referred to as “Sodruzhestvo.” The former is Ukrainian and the latter the Russian name of the same company.
[13] Interview with V. Taran, Director General of Sodruzhestvo Corporation, Kiev, 12 December 2000.
[14] Press Release, Embassy of Ukraine, Ottawa, Canada, 28 March 2001.
[15] Interview with V. Taran, Director General, Sodruzhestvo Corporation and Col. Mikhailenko, secretary of the Interagency Committee on Stockpile Destruction, 4 April 2001.
[16] “Vibuho-tehnichna sluzba,” Militia of Ukraine, November 2000.
[17] Ministry of Emergency Situations, Annual Report, 2000.
[18] Cabinet Ministry Act #2294 and Joint Order #131/155/261 signed by the Minister of Defense, the Minister of the Emergency Situations, the Head of the Frontier Guard State Committee, issued on 26 May 2000.
[19] Report of General Volodymyr Vorobiov, Head of the Corps of Engineers, 28 April 1998.
[20] Ibid.
[21] Ministry of Emergency Situations, Annual Report 2000.
[22] Ministry of Emergency Situations Reports in 2001.
[23] Ministry of Emergency Situations, Annual Report 2000.
[24] Annual Report 2000 of General Vasiliy Durdinets, The Minister of Emergency Situations, "Emergency Situation," Magazine #1, January 2001.
[25] Yalta CIS Landmine Monitor meeting report, October 2000.
[26] Statements by Colonel M. Mikhailenko, Ukrainian Engineers Corps, Yalta Landmine Conference, 16-18 October 2000.
[27] Interview with Dr. Alexey Vertiy, Head of Ukrainian-Turkish landmine scientific research laboratory, 15 November 2000.
[28] UMAIC information report for Yalta Landmine Monitor Conference, 16 October 2000.
[29] Interview with Alexander Koshchenko, Director of “MAGELLAN” Space Agency, Kiev, 12 December 2000.
[30] Statements by Colonel M. Mikhailenko, 16-18 October 2000.
[31] Report of the press service of the Ministry of Defense, 8 December 2000.
[32] MIG News Information, 31 September 2000, pp. 13-34.
[33] Report of the press service of the Ministry of Defense, 24 July 2000.
[34] Report of the press service of the Ministry of Defense, 8 December 2000.
[35] Statement by Sergey Pachinko, Director of the Ukrainian Mine Action Information Center, Yalta Landmine Monitor Conference, 16-18 October 2000.
[36] Facty i Commentaries (newspaper), May 2000.
[37] Ministry of Emergency Situations, Annual Report 2000.
[38] See Landmine Monitor Report 1999, p. 761, for more details on casualties.
[39] “INTERFAX –UKRAINE” (news agency), 12 October 1999.
[40] Uryadoviy Currier [The Government Courier](newspaper), 10 February 2000.
[41] Interview with Valeriy Ablasov, Deputy Head of UDVA, 1 June 2001.
[42] Order of the Government of Ukraine, No. 925, 27 May 1999. For further details see Landmine Monitor Report 1999, p 761 and Landmine Monitor Report 2000, p. 791.
[43] Interview with V. Habarov, Director of Ukrainian State Fund for Social Protection of the Disabled, Kiev, 14 December 2000.
[44] Ibid.
[45] Press release from the Social Rehabilitation Center, Kiev, 4 December 2000.
[46] For example, Decree #344/200, 3 November 2000 and Order #119/2001, 25 April 2001.
