Ukraine
Location Info
Region
Eastern Europe
Type
Participating State
Introduction
The current crisis in and around Ukraine has led to large areas of the country being contaminated by deadly explosive remnants, including landmines, as well as impacted by the proliferation of illicit SALW and SCA. These pose a serious risk to human life and are obstacles to social and economic development. In response to those challenges, the national authorities of Ukraine requested technical assistance from the OSCE. In response to those assistance requests, the OSCE Project Co-ordinator in Ukraine developed several tailored Extra Budgetary Projects designed to introduce necessary policy regulations and standards, ensuring a co-ordinated approach among all agencies involved.
OSCE efforts aim to build Ukrainian agencies’ institutional and technical capacity to prevent and combat SALW and SCA trafficking, as well as to successfully demine designated regions. In that respect OSCE is supporting Ukrainian authorities in two distinct tasks:
Firstly, to increase the safety of the people in crisis-affected areas, the Co-ordinator assists in ensuring dangerous areas are clearly marked, promotes mine risk education efforts and facilitates dialogue between local communities and demining actors on the issues.
Secondly, to support Ukrainian law enforcement agencies to sucessfully address challenges the country faces related to the spread of illicit weapons, ammunition and explosives (WAE) across its borders and on its territory.
Ongoing Activities
Currently, the OSCE is delivering four (4) Extra Budgetary projects implemented jointly by the OSCE Secretariat and the OSCE Project Co-ordinator in Ukraine.
Past Activities
The following arms control activities were implemented in Ukraine to date:
- OSCE helps Ukraine to introduce an information management system for mine action.
- Support to Humanitarian demining.
- Clearance of Donetsk and Luhansk regions of unexploded ordnance.
- Support to Ukraine’s rescuers in enhancing their capability to deal with underwater explosive threats.
- OSCE helps children of eastern Ukraine learn safety rules to avoid accidents with ammunition and unexploded ordnance.
- OSCE supports Ukraine’s efforts to clear seashores from legacy of past wars.
Map
Description
OSCE support to Ukraine in combating illicit trafficking of weapons, ammunition and explosives