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Cleaning-up explosive remnants of war

9 June 2011
  • Samples of explosive remnants of war found in Inkerman cave near Sevastopol, Crimea, September 2009. (OSCE/Rene BeBeau)
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  • World War II ordnance recovered from the sea near the city of Kerch, Crimea, September 2009. (OSCE/Rene BeBeau)
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  • Anatoliy Boiko, First Deputy Head of State Emergency Service of Ukraine and Madina Jarbussynova, the OSCE Project Co-ordinator, sign handover agreement on donation of equipment for underwater demining on 21 March 2014. (OSCE/Andrii Dziubenko)
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  • A pyrotechnic specialist from Ukraine's Emergency Situations Ministry at a ceremony for the donation of personal protective equipment by the OSCE Project Co-ordinator in Ukraine, Kyiv, 18 March 2011. (OSCE/Oksana Polyuga)
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  • Pyrotechnic specialists from Ukraine's Emergency Situations Ministry at a ceremony for the donation of personal protective equipment by the OSCE Project Co-ordinator in Ukraine, Kyiv, 18 March 2011. (OSCE/Oksana Polyuga)
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  • Close-up of the explosive ordnance detection equipment donated by the OSCE Project Co-ordinator in Ukraine to the country’s Emergency Situations Ministry. (OSCE)
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Areas contaminated with explosive remnants of war are a serious problem in Ukraine whose territory was the arena for intense war battles in World War II. Significant areas around the cities of Kerch and Sevastopol, former Soviet military outposts on the Crimean coast, and near city of Bila Tserkva of the Kyiv Region, are among the most heavily contaminated.

Since 2010, the OSCE Project Co-ordinator (PCU) in Ukraine has been enhancing capacity of the country’s Emergency Situations Ministry to clear contaminated areas in a safe and effective way. The PCU has been providing the Ministry’s Explosive Ordnance Detection units on site with up-to-date equipment for explosive ordnance detection, personal protective, as well as the required training.

This project has been supported by Denmark, Germany, Ireland and the United States.