We live here: 51 demining groups receive pick-up trucks and demining equipment

The Foundation for Competent Assistance to the Army “Come Back Alive” has transferred vehicles and demining equipment to another 20 engineering and demining groups of the Armed Forces Support Forces as part of the “We Live Here” project with Kyivstar. The value of the aid is UAH 26,045,556.

Each of the 20 demining teams received:

• a pick-up truck
• an Autel EVO Nano+ quadcopter for reconnaissance of the territory;
• a tablet with a protective case and a memory card for installing maps;
• 3 Motorola radio stations;
• 3 personal demining kits;
• 3 sapper loincloths;
• group demining kit;
• a metal detector;
• a blasting machine with a charger and a pouch;
• ohmmeter
• probes;
• 2 coils of wire.

The Foundation also provided the unit with 7 modular explosive protective suits.

“Our sappers are working in the de-occupied territories and at the front. Last year, we demined the liberated Kharkiv region with our colleagues, then we were on a rotation to Bakhmut in Donetsk Oblast, and now we are working in the Kupyansk sector. Therefore, reliable transportation is extremely important to us. It allows us to quickly get to the areas where we perform our missions, get out of the line of fire and evacuate the wounded,” says Yulia “Romashka (Daisy)“, commander of a demining unit.

“The kit contains everything for sappers to work efficiently and safely. Metal detectors and probes are indispensable in our work. We use them to search for anti-personnel and anti-tank mines. We have a special wrench to remotely unscrew the fuse. We need quadcopters. We take them up and inspect the fields. When we know at least roughly what is there, it is easier to work,” says Anatoliy, a sapper driver.

In total, 51 sapper groups from six units have already received assistance from the Foundation under the “We Live Here” initiative in the amount of over UAH 71.5 million.

“More than a third of Ukraine’s territory needs demining. No other country in the world has faced such mine contamination since World War II,” says Victoria Dvoretska, head of the Come Back Alive instructional department. “Since the beginning of Russia’s full-scale invasion, the sappers of the Support Forces have cleared almost 10,000 hectares and defused more than 120,000 explosive devices.

In addition, they work at the forefront and make it possible for our counter-offensive to move forward through dense enemy mines. The Foundation has already provided 51 sapper groups with the equipment and vehicles they need to work efficiently and safely. We are working to help 95 more. I am grateful to our partner Kyivstar and all responsible businesses and citizens who contribute to the fundraising.” The We Live Here project was launched in late May. “Come Back Alive” and Kyivstar are raising UAH 175 million to equip 146 engineer groups of the Armed Forces Support Forces. So far, they have raised over 105 million.