Ukraine to receive mine detection dogs from EU in three more stages by late 2025
The relevant statement was made by Leonid Levchenko, the Head of the Department for the Search for Explosives by Mine Detection Dogs of the Ukrainian Support Forces Command, in a commentary to Ukrinform.
During the second stage, which had been recently completed in Poland, eight mine detection dogs were handed over to Ukraine. The ninth dog failed to pass the certification procedure and will be handed over later.
According to Levchenko, the second stage of a special training course for mine detection dogs took place in Nowy Sącz, southern Poland. The dogs, which had been previously trained in Europe for six months, spent two weeks being trained in the conditions as close as possible to the Ukrainian ones.
“It was a rubble imitation, search for explosives on a road, search at railroad tracks, i.e. in the places, where we will have to work in Ukraine,” Levchenko told.
In his words, the ninth dog, which has failed to pass the certification procedure, will be handed over to Ukraine during the next transfer stage in six months.
“There will be three more stages, and the project itself will last until the end of 2025,” Levchenko noted.
As soon as the dogs arrive in Ukraine, they will also have to pass the Ukrainian certification procedure. After the dogs are registered in their units, they will undergo training in the Kamianets-Podilskyi dog training center.
“Here, the dogs will complete a 10-day training course on our smells, namely trinitrotoluene, plastid explosives, both Ukrainian and Soviet made. The Western-made explosives have a slightly different smell. Hence, they will pass tests and go back to their units, and later they will be sent to carry out combat missions,” Levchenko explained.
He mentioned that the above dogs would be involved in demining works in the Kyiv, Chernihiv, Kharkiv and Kherson regions. They will be also working in the Kamianets-Podilskyi dog training center.
“We work in the liberated areas: the groups of sappers carry out tasks there, and a canine team helps the sappers,” Levchenko added.
He noted that the mine detection dogs handed over by European partners (German, Belgian and Dutch shepherds) are one and a half to two years old. They will be able to actively search for explosives for another five to six years.
A reminder that, on November 9, 2023, the European Union handed over the second group of explosive and mine detection dogs to Ukraine, trained in EU countries, namely Finland, Belgium and Luxembourg. The certification of the dogs and their transfer to the handlers of the Ukrainian Armed Forces after a two-week adaptation course took place at the Carpathian Border Guard Unit in Nowy Sącz, southern Poland.
Photo: illustrative
