Ambassador: Azerbaijan to train Ukrainian sappers

Azerbaijan's demining experts will train Ukrainian sappers, the Interior Ministry reported on Aug. 10, citing Ambassador of Azerbaijan to Ukraine Seymour Mardaliev.

At a meeting in Kyiv, the Mardaliev-led delegation discussed the organization of such training on the territory of Azerbaijan with Deputy Interior Minister Bohdan Drapiatyi.

"Our experience should be very interesting for you. We are talking not only about national capabilities but also about international missions in which Azerbaijan has been involved," said Mardaliev.

The Azerbaijani side also pledged a new aid package for Ukraine, which will include a mechanized demining machine. According to Drapiatyi, a work day of such a machine equals 100 days of sappers' work.

Russia's war has led to around 174,000 square kilometers of Ukrainian land potentially contaminated with mines and other explosive objects, Drapiatyi said at the meeting.

Nearly 14,000 square kilometers of Ukrainian water bodies also need to be cleared, he added.

According to the Azerbaijani government, Baku has provided more than 15 million euro in humanitarian assistance to Ukraine since the beginning of the full-scale war.

However, Azerbaijan, which shares a border with Russia, has also maintained good relations with Moscow, having signed a political and military friendship agreement with Russia just two days before the invasion.

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Donetsk Oblast – At an unusually nice house on a street with rows of modest cottages, Ukraine’s front-line sappers spend their days indoors waiting for their daunting nightly missions– venturing out into “gray zones” laying mines sometimes as close as 100 meters from the nearest Russian trench. “Th…

The Kyiv IndependentAsami Terajima