U.S. approves $89 million in aid to clear landmines and ordnance in Ukraine 

The U.S. State Department has approved $89 million worth of assistance to help Ukraine equip and train 100 teams to clear landmines and unexploded ordnance for a year, an official said on Tuesday, Report informs, citing Reuters.

The funding is the largest U.S. de-mining program yet in Ukraine, and the official compared Ukraine's challenge to attempts to disarm unexploded ordnance in Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos following the American war of the 1960s and 70s in Southeast Asia.

A Ukrainian official said the aid addressed one of the country's most important tasks. "By our estimates, 160,000 square kilometres of Ukrainian land need de-mining, which is about the size of Virginia, Maryland and Connecticut combined," said Andrii Yermak, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's top aide.

"This aid will accelerate Ukraine's recovery," Zelenskyy's chief of staff said in a Telegram post.

The United States is the top financial supporter of conventional weapons destruction, according to a State Department report, and has provided more than $4.2 billion in assistance to over 100 countries from 1993 through 2021.