In Ukraine, overnight attacks continued into Thursday morning, resulting in 45 casualties and significant damage to civilian infrastructure, the UN has reported.

[…]

Millions of mines and unexploded ordnances are currently scattered throughout Ukraine. This makes it the most heavily contaminated country since the end of the Second World War, said Paul Heslop, the UN Mine Action Service (UNMAS) advisor in Ukraine.

UNMAS estimates that over 20 per cent of land — or 139,000 square kilometres — in Ukraine is contaminated by mines or unexploded ordnances.

Over six million people live in or around contaminated areas and over 800 casualties due to unexploded ordnances have been documented. This is the real contamination.

But Mr. Heslop noted that for every one square kilometre which is actually contaminated, there are 100 which are not. However, that does not mean that residents feel they can safely return to the land. This is the “perceived contamination” of unexploded ordnances.

UNMAS is working to identify which of the 139,000 square kilometres of potentially contaminated land is safe.

[…]

  • Saleh@feddit.orgEnglish
    7·
    2 days ago

    Judging by the situation in Ex-Yugoslavia and other regions like Iraq or North Africa this will take decades to get to a level with injuries and fatalities being rare.

    In Western Europe, in particular in Germany it is still quite common for people to find unexploded ordnance.

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