Engineers from the Colombian Army will train Ukrainian soldiers on humanitarian military demining issues at the request of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), official sources reported on Monday.
(You might be interested in: Colombia: Biden signs memorandum declaring the country an extra-Otan ally)
Defense Minister Diego Molano assured that they were “invited to participate in the Contact Group in Defense of Ukraine and there a requirement was made, a call from NATO to be able to provide education and training to the Ukrainian Armed Forces in demining military”, a subject in which Colombia is an expert because of its armed conflict.
(You might be interested in: What does it mean that Colombia has the status of an extra-NATO ally)
Molano pointed out that the request was made taking into account “the long history” of the country’s Armed Forces in humanitarian military demining and because Colombia, which is a global partner of NATO, has a military demining training center in Tolemaida (a military base near Bogotá) “with great experience in capabilities, in information.”
He added that “this will be put at the service of the Ukrainian military whose training will be given by 11 military engineers who will go to a NATO member country, neighboring Ukraine.”
“This training will be done in the doctrine, techniques and tactics of military demining. The aim of this effort is that, as has happened in Colombia, military demining will free municipalities from this scourge of war, but at the same time prevent more lives are affected in the future,” he stressed.
(It might interest you: There was an assassination attempt on Putin, says Ukrainian intelligence)
Ukraine will need between five and seven years, according to the most optimistic forecasts, to clear its entire territory of mines and unexploded ordnancesaid last Saturday the Deputy Minister of the Interior of that country, Meri Akopyan.
“We now estimate that some 300,000 square kilometers of territory are contaminated. This is tens of times more than international experience. If we base ourselves on the fact that one day of active combat is equivalent to 30 days of demining, according to the most optimistic forecasts, we need between 5 and 7 years for total demining,” he said.
INTERNATIONAL WRITING
*With information from Eph.
More world news:
-Monkeypox: the US will apply vaccines, but not to all people
-The return of the emeritus king makes the Spanish Crown uncomfortable
-Vigil for migrants who have died trying to cross the border
#Ukraine #receive #team #Colombia #demining #training