Digitalization of humanitarian demining: CGR presented new tools at a forum in Kharkiv
18.09.2025
Andriy Datsyuk, Deputy Director of the Humanitarian Demining Center (Center) for Digital Transformation and Innovation, spoke at the Forum “Popularization of the Sapper Profession – Safety and Future,” organized by the Kharkiv OVA jointly with the Mine Action Coordination Center at the KHOVA. The Deputy Director of the Center outlined new digital tools that the Center is implementing in the mine action system.
The forum brought together representatives of the state, communities, international donors, and mine action operators (MAOs), who discussed the challenges in the work of sappers, ways to popularize this profession, and discussed modern technologies for faster and safer demining.
Andriy Datsyuk noted that digitalization is a key direction for the Center's development, as it allows combining the efforts of the state, demining operators, and donor organizations into a single effective system.
Digital solutions to accelerate processes:
- Using satellite imagery and interactive maps to monitor the condition of territories, identify priority areas for inspection, and analyze the scale of potential contamination.
- A quality control system that involves independent verification of completed work using drones, thermal imaging, and other modern technologies. This ensures transparency and increases trust among citizens and international partners.
- Big Data analytics that helps make informed decisions, predict the complexity of work, and use resources more efficiently.
GRIT Platform as a Future Think Tank
The Deputy Director for Digital Transformation and Innovation paid special attention in his speech to the creation of a digital platform GRIT – Ground Rehabilitation through Innovation Technologies to manage some aspects of mine action. This system is being developed as an analytical hub that will integrate Planet satellite imagery, data from state registers, socio-economic and environmental indicators. Thanks to this, the system will be able to conduct multi-factor analysis, identify priority areas for demining and calculate the social and economic effect of clearing territories.
Although GRIT is still in its implementation phase, it is already clear that this platform will accelerate the humanitarian demining process, make planning transparent, and increase the level of trust among donors and communities. It will also become a single environment for data exchange between all participants in the process.
According to Andriy Datsyuk, the main goal of digitalization is not only to accelerate the cleaning of territories, but also to create new standards of interaction between all participants in the process.
"We strive for every hectare of cleared land to be returned to communities as quickly as possible and with a guarantee of safety. Digital tools allow us to make this process transparent, controlled, and efficient. And in the long term, this means saved lives, restored agricultural activity, new jobs, and a sense of security for people," the Deputy Director of the Center emphasized.
The use of modern technologies in mine action allows Ukraine to form its own model of humanitarian demining, which is already attracting the interest of international partners and can become an example for other countries of the world.