Ukraine’s conflict with Russia-led forces has resulted in a line of contact between the Ukrainian government and the anti-government forces that Russia arms, trains, leads, and fights alongside. The line of contact running through the Donetsk and Luhansk regions suffers from extensive landmine and UXO contamination. These explosive hazards pose a major threat to thousands of Ukrainians living in the conflict area.
The US Humanitarian Demining Research and Development (HD R&D) Program deployed the Traxx area preparation system to The HALO Trust in July 2019. It has removed vegetation from 321,241 square meters of land to allow access by demining teams to the area. Additionally, the program is now developing two demining systems destined for deployment to Ukraine. The first is a modified commercial tractor that will have area preparation and detection tools integrated onto a single platform. Two systems will be deployed to Ukraine in late 2021. The project is in support of a US European Command project to provide the capability to Ukraine. The second system is an area preparation power harrow and in-house developed magnet integrated onto an armored commercial tractor. Deployment is scheduled for early 2020.
Sources: To Walk the Earth in Safety, 2023
Landmine Monitor Report, 2020
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