The leadership of the “Return to Life” Charitable Foundation took part in a field demonstration of the Ukrainian remotely operated demining machine Germina-3000, organized by Ukrainian Demining Services (UDS).

The event took place on a site previously cleared by the company within the Bucha territorial community of the Kyiv region, near the village of Shybene. The demonstration was held in challenging winter conditions — on snow and in sub-zero temperatures.

More than 60 representatives of diplomatic missions, international organizations, government institutions, charitable foundations, and mine action operators attended the event. Among them were the Embassies of Slovenia, Belgium, and Croatia in Ukraine, the American Chamber of Commerce, the UN Resident Coordinator’s Office, UN Women, the UNDP Mine Action Programme, FAO, the Mine Action Center, the Interregional Center for Humanitarian Demining of the State Emergency Service of Ukraine, MAG Ukraine, FSD Ukraine, and other partners.

Participants also discussed the challenges and specific features of demining during the winter period, the role of mechanized solutions in ensuring year-round operations, and the importance of developing domestic technologies in the field of humanitarian demining.

“Comprehensive demining during winter is made possible precisely thanks to modern machinery — it ensures year-round operations. For us, as a charitable foundation, it is important not only to speak about this but to act. That is why we recently signed a contract with the Kramatorsk Heavy Machine Tool Building Plant to purchase one Germina-3000 machine in order to strengthen humanitarian demining capacity in Ukraine,” said Kateryna Skrypnikova, Director of the “Return to Life” Charitable Foundation.

We will continue to support innovation in mine action, as it directly brings people closer to returning to safe lives in cleared territories 🇺🇦