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Sappers of the humanitarian demining unit of the Russian peacekeeping contingent in Artsakh have begun demining from explosive ordnance and clearing more than 20 hectares of the territory of the Kolkhozashen village in the Martuni region.

As the Russian Defense Ministry reports, in two months of daily missions, sappers from the Russian peacekeeping contingent have cleared more than 100 hectares of the territories of the settlements of Machkalashen, Kherkhan and Gerger near the demarcation line for carrying out agricultural work and grazing livestock by the residents of Nagorno-Karabakh.

“The demining group is working in the Martuni region.  Over the past period, Machkalashen settlement was cleared, in this settlement it was planned to clear more than 15 hectares, by the end of the work more than 20 hectares were cleared.  Various munitions were found including 120mm artillery shells and cluster munitions.  This ammunition was taken to the destruction site and subsequently destroyed.  Today we started to clean up the area in the village of Kolkhozashen, it is roughly planned to cover more than 20 hectares of territory, today we have covered more than 2 hectares,” said Ilya Stolichny, a representative of the Russian peacekeeping contingent. 

In total, Russian sappers checked 1,927 buildings (of which 33 are socially significant objects), cleared more than 674 kilometers of roads and over 2,257 hectares of territory, discovered and destroyed 25,798 explosive objects, the source said.