The “huge number” of unexploded shells and mines in Ukraine will take years to defuse once the war is over, the country’s interior minister has warned.
Denys Monastyrsky on Friday said the war-torn country will still need support from the West following the Russian invasion to clear the remnants of the brutal conflict.
“A huge number of shells and mines have been fired at Ukraine and a large part haven’t exploded, they remain under the rubble and pose a real threat,” Mr Monastyrsky told the Associated Press from Kyiv.
“It will take years, not months, to defuse them.”
Alongside swathes of unexploded Russian ordnances are land mines planted by Ukrainian forces at bridges, airports and other key infrastructure to prevent Putin’s troops from using them.
“We won’t be able to remove the mines from all that territory, so I asked our international partners and colleagues from the European Union and the United States to prepare groups of experts to demine the areas of combat and facilities that came under shelling,” Mr Monastyrsky said.
Also of concern to the Kyiv official is managing fires caused by the relentless strikes. Mr Monastyrsky said the capital is suffering a severe shortage of personnel and equipment to deal with the fires amid the constant shelling.
Despite recent warnings of a likely full-scale Russian attack on Kyiv, forces have made little progress of late and have sustained significant losses.
It comes as the officer in charge of defending the region around the country’s capital on Friday said his forces are well positioned to defend the city.
Speaking with the AP, major general Oleksandr Pavlyuk said “the enemy is halted,” adding that “we are improving this system of defensive lines” to make Kyiv “inapproachable for the enemy.”
In the face of three weeks of intensive Russian bombardment, Ukraine has managed to maintain its defence of its cities.
“From time to time, the enemy tests our defences, but our boys are strong in their positions and also play an active role in preventing the enemy to fulfill their plans,” he said.
Pavlyuk, who was put in charge of the capital’s military defences earlier this week, said Moscow was employing the same tactics used when the conflict with Russia-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine erupted in 2014.
“That’s why now that war has been transformed into killing civilians, destroying civilian infrastructure, to frighten our people to the maximum,” he said.
“But we will never give up. We will fight until the end. To the last breath and to the last bullet.”
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