Ukrainian agricultural holding Nibulon has secured €7.8 million from Germany’s DEG Impulse to advance humanitarian demining projects in Ukraine, primarily in maritime and river areas. The key element of the initiative will be the construction of a 90-meter marine platform equipped with unmanned underwater technologies (ROVs, AUVs, and other systems) designed to clear waters of mines and other explosive remnants.
The new platform will become part of the company’s broader demining ecosystem, which already includes the clearance of agricultural land, the development of service infrastructure, and the deployment of rapid-response mobile teams. The vessel will be built at Nibulon’s own shipbuilding yard, which remains the only operational shipbuilding enterprise in Ukraine. The company will implement the project independently, from design to commissioning.
A significant socio-economic impact is expected. The project aims to clear more than 10 square kilometers of maritime and river areas in the Mykolaiv and Kherson regions, which is critical for the safe export of grain and the restoration of navigation. In addition, more than 13,600 hectares of agricultural land will be cleared, enabling over 200 farming enterprises to return land to cultivation and produce more than 70,000 tons of grain annually. The project will improve living conditions for more than 3,000 residents of coastal regions and create new jobs, including the training of approximately 60 demining specialists.
The funding has been provided by DEG Impulse, a non-profit subsidiary of Germany’s DEG, part of the KfW Group, which supports sustainable private sector development and humanitarian initiatives. Since the start of the war, the organization has assisted thousands of demining beneficiaries in Ukraine.
Nibulon has been actively developing its demining operations since 2023, when it received certification from the Ministry of Defense and began building its own infrastructure and training personnel. The company also plans to introduce artificial intelligence technologies to reduce demining costs and accelerate the return of agricultural land to productive use.
At the same time, the holding’s financial performance remains under pressure: in the first nine months of 2025, revenue declined by 16.8% year-on-year to UAH 13.1 billion.
