The Humanitarian Demining Center has successfully held auctions for the clearance of 7,995 hectares of agricultural land in the Kharkiv region, ProAgro Group reports.
According to the Ministry of Economy, the largest bid was submitted by LLC “ADP-AGRO”, which already has experience participating in the compensation program — in November, the company received over 3,300 hectares of cleared land in the Barvinkivska community.
The new application was divided into 10 smaller lots ranging from 193 to 1,123 hectares. In total, 1,283 cadastral plots in the Oskilska, Barvinkivska, and Balakliiska communities of Izium district are planned for clearance. The total cost of the work based on auction results amounted to UAH 588.3 million.
“We are gradually clearing territories where active hostilities took place. On the plots of this application, over 31,000 hectares are considered probably or confirmed contaminated — a third of all such land in Ukraine. It is important that operators are willing to participate in the auctions, understanding the complexity of the work,” said Ihor Bezkaraivnyi, Deputy Minister of Economy.
Following the auctions, the operator “Humanitarian Safety” won three auctions. “Global Demining” will clear two plots, while “PSM Ukraine”, “Transimpex Demining”, “Ukrainian Demining Services”, “Ukrainian Demining Agency”, and “International Demining Group” secured one-time victories. The preliminary average cost of clearance per hectare is UAH 73,600.
“With a single application, we have increased the area of land to be cleared under the state compensation program by 50%. We plan to start the process this year. Preliminary winners have been determined for seven auctions, while decisions for three are still pending,” said Volodymyr Bayda, Director of the Humanitarian Demining Center.
Most of the cadastral plots in the application area, according to surveys, are contaminated with anti-personnel and anti-vehicle mines, unexploded ordnance, and cluster munitions.
Earlier reports noted that since the beginning of 2025, nearly 10,000 hectares of agricultural land have been returned to farmers under the state demining compensation program.
