By KYIV. Nov 6 (Interfax-Ukraine) – It is necessary to bring 80% of contaminated land back into economic use within 10 years, and to do so, Ukraine intends to leverage all innovative approaches and artificial intelligence (AI) tools at its disposal, which will have impact on mine clearance all over the world, First Deputy Prime Minister and Economy Minister of Ukraine Yulia Svyrydenko said in an interview with TIME.
“As of Nov. 1, at least 264 civilians had been killed by mines, and more than 830 have been maimed or injured since Russia’s invasion. […] Officials say the number of landmine victims could reach 9,000 by 2030 if the problem isn’t effectively addressed. […] The vast minefields have not only bogged down Ukraine’s military counteroffensive. They’ve endangered six million civilians and rendered parts of the nation’s most valuable farmland unusable, impacting both Ukraine’s economy and the global food supply,” the minister said.
Ukraine intends to leverage all the tech tools at its disposal to speed up the demining process.
“We are fully changing the approach, especially when it comes to using big data. We have the opportunity to improve the existing technology, and it will be something new that Ukraine can export in the future,” Svyrydenko said.
According to the minister, the Ukrainian government has partnered with U.S. data analytics giant Palantir to combine dozens of previously siloed data streams and develop models that will determine which mine clearances will have the biggest impact.
Ukraine is already testing the software developed by Ukrainian IT specialists that uses precise satellite imagery and AI-enabled algorithms to more quickly release land if there is no evidence of mines.
Ukrainian manufacturers have also developed the first Ukrainian-made demining machine that is significantly cheaper than foreign analogues. Ukraine also recently unveiled an unmanned aerial mine detector that uses a combination of thermal, hyperspectral, and magnetometer sensors to detect mines from a low altitude and transmit that information back to sappers operating from a secure location.
“We’re going to see a fundamental change in the way that humanitarian demining is done in the next three years in Ukraine that will affect mine action the whole world over,” Paul Heslop, head of U.N. Mine Action at the United Nations Development Programme in Ukraine, is quoted as saying by TIME.
