Ukraine will send weapons and demining specialists to Syria to help clear landmines and unexploded ordnance scattered across the country during more than a decade of civil war, under an agreement finalized between the two governments, Syria’s state-run news agency reported.
According to SANA, the agreement covers cooperation on “humanitarian demining” and will draw on Ukrainian expertise in handling landmine contamination to protect agricultural land and food security. The report said Ukrainian experts will travel to Syria to identify explosives — particularly in civilian areas — and safely disable and remove them.
“Key initiatives include field training, technical capacity-building, advanced detection equipment transfers, and Ukrainian expert visits to high-contamination areas, particularly in northern Syria,” SANA reported, adding that the Ukrainians would help train Syrian specialists and build a comprehensive map of areas needing clearance. The agreement was announced Sunday by the government of President Ahmed al-Sharaa.
A deal months in the making
The announcement caps months of talks between Kyiv and Damascus. In July, Ukraine’s state outlet Ukrinform reported that the Ukrainian president’s cabinet had approved a paper agreement on humanitarian demining in Syria. Ukrainian Deputy Minister of Economy and Environment Ihor Bezkaravainyi, who signed the final deal, reportedly confirmed at a meeting in Damascus that “Ukrainian specialists will participate directly on the ground to deploy technology and locate sub-surface explosive remnants.” He is expected to lead efforts to work out how the agreement is carried out.
The demining deal is one of several diplomatic and economic arrangements between the two countries. In early September, the Syrian government announced the formal creation of a Syrian-Ukrainian Business Council to promote bilateral trade — activity that was largely blocked until August, when the United States removed Syria from its list of State Sponsors of Terrorism. Syria had been on that list for decades over the Assad regime’s support for jihadist groups such as Hezbollah. Its removal opened the door to wider trade with Ukraine, a close American ally.
A reversal from the Assad era
The warmer ties mark a striking turnaround from the Assad dynasty’s half-century in power, when Damascus was a dependable friend of Moscow — a relationship that deepened after the civil war began in 2011. Bashar Assad’s closeness to the Kremlin led Kyiv to cut diplomatic ties with Syria in 2022, in response to his backing of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Sharaa and his militia, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, overthrew Assad in December 2024, ending the civil war. Since then, Sharaa has recast himself as a finance-focused leader courting foreign investment and friendly relations with countries including the United States. Diplomatically, he has worked to limit Russian influence in Syria, holding meetings aimed at eroding the Russian military footprint left over from the Assad years.
Sharaa met Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in person for the first time a year ago at the United Nations General Assembly, where the two agreed to normalize relations and look for areas of cooperation. That meeting produced the formal establishment of diplomatic ties between Ukraine and Syria for the first time in four years. Before it, Sharaa had met repeatedly with President Donald Trump, who praised him as a “young, attractive guy” with promise as a leader.
Zelensky described the talks with Sharaa in positive terms at the time, writing on social media that they had discussed “promising sectors for developing cooperation, security threats faced by both countries, and the importance of countering them.” He added: “We agreed to build our relations on the basis of mutual respect and trust.”
In December, Zelensky marked the anniversary of the fall of the Assad regime, saying Ukraine was “there right away, lending a helpful hand” and “ready to continue our support,” adding that “whenever security expands in any region, the whole world becomes safer.”
Zelensky visited Damascus in April and received a warm welcome from Sharaa, who wrote on social media that the two discussed ways to strengthen economic cooperation and exchange expertise. “The visit underscores Syria’s orientation toward expanding its international partnerships in a manner that supports development and bolsters stability,” Sharaa said at the time. Following that meeting, Zelensky said Damascus had a “strong interest in exchanging military and security experience” as well as importing key food items, including grain, from Ukraine.
The landmine problem in Syria is a legacy of more than ten years of fighting that drew in government forces, rebel factions, jihadist groups and foreign militaries. Contamination has rendered farmland unusable and killed or injured civilians long after front lines shifted, making clearance a prerequisite for reconstruction and for the agricultural recovery the new government says it wants to finance.
Source: www.breitbart.com — https://www.breitbart.com/middle-east/2026/09/21/ukraine-signs-deal-to-help-syria-clear-landmines-and-other-post-war-perils/