Hrakove, a village in Prolisne community of Chuhuiv district, has been fully demined. After de-occupation, around 90% of the village’s territory was contaminated with explosive ordnance. This is the first project in Ukraine to demine an entire village.

According to the National Mine Action Platform “Demine Ukraine”, deminers surveyed 58 hectares. The work took just over half a year. Experts removed around 200 mines and over 600 other explosive devices.

During the operation, the village’s territory was cleared, along with its infrastructure: the school, kindergarten, park, streets, vegetable gardens, and fields. Serhii Kotenko, Head of Prolisne community, was presented with a certificate of complete demining of Hrakove.

The contract for the work was signed between the Centre for Humanitarian Demining and the operator “Humanitarian Security” at the end of 2025. Funds for the demining were raised via the UNITED24 platform within the framework of the “Step by Step” initiative.

The Kharkiv Regional Military Administration states that humanitarian demining is intended to create the conditions for residents to return safely to de-occupied localities and for economic activity to resume. Hrakove has become the first such case in Ukraine where an entire locality has been cleared.

The completion of demining enables the community to plan the further restoration of the territory and a return to normal life. However, this is only the first step: as Oleksandr Kravchenko, Minister for the Economy and the Environment, emphasised, clearing the territory creates the conditions for people to return, for work on the land to resume, and for the local economy to develop.