UNITED24 launches the Humanitarian Demining direction of support: Francis Fukuyama became the first ambassador

Today, Ukraine is one of the most heavily mined countries in the world. Due to russia's full-scale invasion, about a third of our country's territory is mined. According to preliminary estimates, 10% of agricultural lands are unusable. This means a permanent threat to human lives, huge losses for the economy, and decades of demining and soil restoration.

"In Ukraine, there are 174,000 square kilometers contaminated with explosives. Over half of the countries in the world have a smaller area. We have to make these territories safe for life. Otherwise, depopulation and ruin threaten them. And we have to do it immediately, because people are dying every day. Currently, Ukraine has 10 demining vehicles and 2,000 sappers. This is definitely not enough to clean up our land," said Yulia Svyrydenko, First Vice Prime Minister of Ukraine, Minister of Economic Development and Trade.

The cleanup work requires vehicles for demining, transportation of personnel, and transportation of explosives. Funds for this equipment will be raised via UNITED24. All donations will be transferred to a special NBU account of the National Bank of Ukraine opened by the Ministry of Economy.

"Ukraine is a major food supplier to Africa, to Asia, to many parts of the world. Everybody is suffering from the inability of Ukraine to export grain. And it is really urgent to think about this post-war situation. So I am pleased to be associated with this demining effort," said Francis Fukuyama, UNITED24 Ambassador.

The world-famous philosopher has been following events in Ukraine since the Orange Revolution. He has lectured in Kyiv several times, and in 2022 he supported Ukraine, condemning  the russian invasion. Fukuyama is also the academic supervisor of the Ukrainian Emerging Leadership program at Stanford, launched in 2016.

Last year, at the same time as the UNITED24 platform was introduced, a fundraising campaign in the Defence and Demining area was launched, which allowed us to purchase the first Armtrac 400 in Ukraine. This is the largest and most efficient demining vehicle in its category, worth more than $18 million. It began operating in Kharkiv oblast in October 2022. Now, it is working in Kherson oblast to clear agricultural land.