Local all-female team equipped with technical survey dogs to clear minefields in Ukraine

Ukrainian handlers with their highly trained dogs are to be deployed to clear landmines and unexploded ordnance across the country in a project funded with a €2 million grant from the European Commission’s Service for Foreign Policy Instruments (FPI).

The 16 Belgian Malinois will be the first technical survey dogs to be deployed in Ukraine. Together with their eight handlers, who are all Ukrainian women, they underwent extensive training in Cambodia for five months before returning to Ukraine.

Many of the dog handlers had previously studied dog training at Ukraine’s Sumy National Agrarian University. During their dog handler course, they have also been trained in manual demining.

The project is being jointly implemented by humanitarian mine action organisations APOPO, which specialises in the deployment of animals for landmine clearance, and the Mines Advisory Group (MAG).

One of the handlers, Karina Buchma, from Lviv, said: “I really want to help my country, to support people and to make a difference. I grew up with dogs and studied dog training so this is the perfect role for me.

“I underwent training in Cambodia and am very motivated to begin helping communities in Ukraine with my new skills. It is such a pleasure to be able to make such an important contribution. The dog I mostly work with is called Tina and of course, we all love our dogs and have a very special bond with them.”

Huge swathes of Ukraine are contaminated with landmines and unexploded ordnance, including cluster munitions, more than two years into Russia’s full-scale invasion.

The dogs will be used to supplement MAG’s manual and mechanical clearance efforts in liberated Ukrainian territories, including in Mykolaiv, Kherson and Kharkiv oblasts.

The Director of FPI, Peter M. Wagner, said:“We are pleased to be able to fund this initiative as part of the EU’s support to improve and scale-up humanitarian mine action in Ukraine. We believe that this innovative project can significantly speed up the clearance of contaminated land and its release for civilian use.”

The dog teams will help improve the speed and precision with which MAG can identify contaminated areas, especially in communities with dense vegetation or challenging terrain.

In certain conditions, technical survey dog teams are able to survey large tracts of land much more quickly than human deminers, identifying explosive items and helping to confirm whether land is safe.

When the dog teams find a landmine or unexploded item of ordnance, MAG’s deminers will be tasked with making the item safe.

Humanitarian mine action is a key element of the support FPI has been mobilising for Ukraine since the beginning of the full-scale Russian invasion, with a total funding of €55 million up to date.

Find out more

Press release
APOPO
Mines Advisory Group