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Yesterday a five-day training session related to the basics of humanitarian demining was commenced at the Estonian Academy of Security Sciences. The training session that lasts from 27th to 30th March 2017 is meant for the representatives of Lviv State University of Life Safety and is aimed to support the establishing of the area-specific training system in Ukraine.

According to the manager of the cooperation project, Arno Pugonen, who is also an advisor of the Estonian EOD Centre, the aim of the training course is to give the future officers of humanitarian demining and their lecturers an overview of the practices meeting international standards. “Ukraine’s national demining system functioned until it almost collapsed when the military conflicts began, but now the state wants to rebuild it again. When doing so, they want the whole preparation system to meet the international standards established by the UN. What is more, they wish to homogenize the EOD-related framework of rules nationwide. We help our Ukrainian colleagues develop their training methodology and train their instructors, too” Pugonen said.

The training sessions that are mainly conducted at the Rescue College of the Estonian Academy of Security Sciences located in Väike-Maarja, meet the requirements of the international standard UN IMAS 6.10. Over the week-long training period, the Ukrainians participate in lectures and practical training sessions, during which they acquire EOD-related basic knowledge. In addition to that, the participants are introduced the Estonian domain of EOD with its training system.

Participants are the first-year students of the department of engineering and EOD works of the Lviv State University of Life Safety. By the end of their fourth year they will have acquired thorough knowledge in the area of humanitarian demining. In addition to the students, there are also two lecturers participating in the course. In the second half of this year there is another training session for the Ukrainian colleagues held and it has been planned that also officers of the EOD group working in the Lviv region would participate.

The Ukrainian delegation is led by colonel Viktor Kovalchuk, the head of the department of engineering and EOD works of the Lviv State University of Life Safety. “Our students have a unique opportunity to get acquainted with international standards of EOD, modern equipment and its use already in their first year of studies. As a lecturer, I will get invaluable experience related to international standards and training methodologies that we definitely would like to start using in the curriculum of humanitarian demining implemented at the Lviv State University of Life Safety,” Kovalchuk said expressing his delight to participate in the cooperation. 

During the Estonian-Ukrainian development cooperation project that lasts until the end of this year, a methodology for training humanitarian deminers is developed and instructors are trained. Special attention is drawn on implementing international standards of humanitarian demining in the units of State Emergency Service of Ukraine. As a result of the project, the first students have already started studying at the department of engineering and EOD works of the Lviv State University of Life Safety.

The development cooperation project “Supporting Ukraine upon Establishing a Training System for Humanitarian Demining” is funded by the Estonian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.