PCM and MAT Kosovo’s Work with Mriya Aid: Training Ukrainians in IMAS EOD Competency Levels

PCM and MAT Kosovo’s Work with Mriya Aid: Training Ukrainians in IMAS EOD Competency Levels

The following article, originally published by Mriya Aid in EinPressWire, highlights the significant efforts undertaken to provide training for Ukrainian Defence Personnel.

138 Ukrainian Defence Personnel Complete Demining Training Program Implemented by Canadian Organization Mriya Aid

This week a fifth group of Ukrainian defence personnel who completed their 5-week training course in International Mine Action Standards (IMAS) in explosive ordnance disposal (EOD) at the Mine Action Training centre in Kosovo brought the total number of Ukrainians trained in Mriya Aid’s 2024 EOD program to 138.

IMAS is the international gold standard of certification in humanitarian demining that ensures consistent practices to implement and improve the safety and efficiency in mine action across contexts.

“Every training course saves lives and reduces the number of accidents. We work to make sure that Ukrainian mine action professionals come home to their families alive and without injury at the end of each work day or at the end of their deployment,” said the CEO and Chair of the board of Mriya Aid Lesya Granger.

Last week, the group of nine Ukrainian sappers returned to Ukraine with 15 other Ukrainian demining professionals for deployment across Ukraine to safely and securely locate and remove unexploded ordnance from infrastructure, buildings, fields, forests and communities. This group of nine deminers is the fifth this year whose IMAS training and certification at the Mine Action Training centre in Kosovo was organized and paid for by the Canadian Not-for-profit organization Mriya Aid. This group was preceded by 46 Ukrainian sappers who graduated in mid-September, 33 who completed the program in late July, with another 31 in May and 19 in April having successfully completed the training program.

This last group of nine completed IMAS Level 3 certification. The previous four groups, who studied from March to September, completed IMAS EOD Level 2 training and certification.

Certification to IMAS Level 2 provides the knowledge and skills needed to identify, mark and help transport munitions together with a team of deminers. Level 3 provides graduates with more advanced knowledge and skills, with the ability to work safely with a greater range of explosive remnants of war, and to work as an EOD team leader and site supervisor.

In total, 138 personnel from the Armed Forces of Ukraine and state services working in explosive ordnance disposal completed Mriya Aid’s 2024 IMAS EOD demining certification program. Of these graduates, 11 are women. The support and close cooperation of the Main Department of Mine Action, Civilian Protection and Environmental Safety of the National Mine Action Authority of the Ministry of Defence of Ukraine was indispensable to this demining train and equip program.

The IMAS-compliant bespoke training courses are developed and delivered by Praedium Consulting Malta, a key player in providing humanitarian mine action and EOD training to deminers across the globe since 1999, and most recently, close to four hundred Ukrainians.

The project is the largest humanitarian mine action training program organized by Mriya Aid in the last three years. Mriya Aid was founded in early March 2022 by Canadian defence, security and management professionals. The Mriya Aid team focuses on supporting the Ukrainian military and emergency services to ensure survival both at the individual level on the frontlines and at the societal level through medical infrastructure and demining in communities affected by war.

As part of this train and equip program, Ukrainian graduates who successfully completed the courses and passed the IMAS EOD Level 2 certification assessments and examinations are being equipped with demining PPE, mine detectors and toolkits for demining operations to be performed across Ukraine.

Recent estimates suggest that 10,000 deminers working over 5 years are needed to release over 146,000 sq kms of land across Ukraine, which is potentially contaminated by explosives threats, with 6 million civilians at risk or unable to return to their homes. Drones, AI, and mechanical means can quickly survey larger tracts and confirm the absence of contamination. However, the remainder has to be cleared, most often by slow, methodical manual means.

There is a world-wide shortage of certified mine action professionals with both military and humanitarian demining expertise. Since 2022, close to 400 Ukrainian men and women have been trained and certified at PCM’s Mine Action Training centre, with a significant portion of these through Mriya Aid’s EOD program. The classroom work and hands-on practice at Praedium Consulting’s state-of-the-art purpose-built training facilities offer trainees competencies in identifying and working with explosive threats, including those specific to the current war caused by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Mriya Aid advocates, finds funding, and implements mine action and humanitarian demining training programs to the highest levels of IMAS standards for Ukrainian men and women demining professionals.