Standing United
How Mriya Aid Supported Ukraine in 2025
As Ukrainians marked Unity Day on Jan 22 - 107 years of striving to reunify lands and people forcibly divided for over three centuries - we are reminded that lasting unity and a just peace in Ukraine and globally depends on like-minded people standing together. Ukrainians shed blood every day for fundamental values and justice.
At Mriya Aid, we express unity and solidarity through action - by helping defenders and sappers save lives every day. We are proud of our work in 2025 and are committed to expanding support for Ukraine in 2026.
Training Sappers, Saving Lives
In 2025, Mriya Aid continued to support Ukrainian deminer training and certification in accordance with International Mine Action Standards, working directly with Ukrainian sapper networks and state agencies to ensure training reflects real operational conditions and current needs on the ground. Frontline defenders and emergency services consistently report an acute shortage of trained sappers. Clearing mines and explosive ordnance is essential to protecting civilians, enabling military movement, and allowing emergency responders to do their work safely.
Our key partners - PCM Mine Action Training Centre, the Ukrainian mine action community, and international donors - respond rapidly to emerging training needs, expanding training materials and practical modules that help sappers work more safely and effectively with the most dangerous munitions Russia deploys daily. Surveys, interviews and post-deployment feedback from sappers we support concretely demonstrated that the training provides them with critical hands-on experience in all explosive remnants of war such as such as anti-tank or anti-personnel mines, projectiles of all types and calibres, grenades, missiles be they air-to-air, surface-to-air, air-to-surface, surface-to-surface, increasingly devious and deadly improvised explosive devices, and complex munitions that are extremely sensitive and pose life threatening risks to sappers and civilians alike. The graduates of our programs report an increased ability to work confidently, safely, and effectively.
Mriya Aid is the only Canadian organisation dedicated exclusively to strengthening Ukraine’s humanitarian and operational demining capacity, making it a uniquely positioned partner able to translate frontline needs into effective, life-saving support.
Evidence-Based Impact
In 2025, Mriya Aid produced several comprehensive analytical reports for institutional donors and Ukrainian partners, including the International Demining Capability Coalition, documenting our support for training and equipping over 200 Ukrainian deminers in 2024 and 2025. Using qualitative and quantitative data from surveys and interviews, we transformed frontline experience into structured knowledge to inform the design, relevance, and effectiveness of future training programmes.
This work was made possible through extensive volunteer effort - applying for funding and managing complex projects. Individual donations remain essential. While 100% of public donations made to Mriya Aid go directly to the front, they also unlock institutional funding by demonstrating public trust and community support. The generosity of individual donors from across the globe multiplies impact and turns global solidarity with Ukraine into tangible life-saving results.
“Mriya Aid’s EOD Train and Equip project is a significant contribution to building Ukraine’s national mine action capabilities and demining capacity.”
Colonel Ruslan Berehulia, Head, Ministry of Defence of Ukraine, Main Directorate of Mine Action, Civilian Protection and Environmental Safety, March 2025
Tools, Trainers, and Long-Term Capacity
In 2025, we partnered with an institutional donor to support the publication and distribution of 3,000 copies of Miny (Mines) - Ukraine’s key practitioner-driven technical manual for operational and humanitarian deminers. The manual systematizes up-to-date information on Russian-used mines and explosive devices, deployment methods, and safe detection and neutralization practices. NATO EOD specialists and international trainers have since requested an English edition aligned with NATO terminology and doctrine - an effort Mriya Aid is now advancing with Ukrainian and international partners.
Thanks to individual donors across the globe, Mriya Aid delivered 100 Tsukorok drone detectors to frontline AFU sapper teams in June 2025. Sappers are one of the primary targets of enemy first-person-view drones equipped with explosives that hunt and kill Ukrainian sappers, soldiers, and even civilians. Read about our efforts to provide these life-saving devices that give sappers a chance to take cover or activate electronic countermeasures in Eyes and Ears on the Battlefield.
Another major outcome was the impact of IMAS EOD training funded by Mriya Aid for five National Police of Ukraine instructors. These specialists from the Lviv State University of Internal Affairs and the Kyiv Academy of Internal Affairs train 2,000–3,000 police officers annually in bomb disposal and UXO handling in civilian areas. This train-the-trainer approach - funded by individual donations in this case - creates long-term, systemic impact, improving safety standards and saving lives.
Advocacy and Global Engagement
Throughout 2025, Mriya Aid remained active in international advocacy and professional forums focused on Ukraine’s recovery. On May 31, together with the NATO Association of Canada, the Canada-Ukraine Chamber of Commerce, the Munk School of Global Affairs, and the Embassy of Ukraine in Canada, we co-organized Safeguarding Ukraine’s Future: Security Guarantees and Demining for Recovery and Reconstruction. The conference brought together over 150 participants from government, diplomacy, defence, civil society, and academia, elevating mine action on Canada’s policy agenda.
Mriya Aid Chair and CEO Lesya Granger moderated a panel on demining Ukraine, while Vice-President Mark Paine organized an exhibit with our longtime partner Med-Eng. Participants were invited to hold shrapnel from Ukrainian frontlines - an unforgettable reminder of the real human cost of mines and UXO.
Our advocacy continued at the 28th International Meeting of National Mine Action Directors, Mine Action Conference in Tokyo and the Rebuild Ukraine Conferences in Warsaw and in Toronto, strengthening dialogue around security, recovery, and reconstruction - and reinforcing the central role of mine action in economic renewal. This work reinforced the importance of our mission and our role in the broader ecosystem of Ukraine’s recovery.
“Mriya Aid is widely respected in the field, and they are one of very few international private-sector non-profit organisations at the table when Ukrainian mine-action and EOD issues are at stake at the national level.” – PCM leadership
On the Ground in Ukraine
Two team visits to Ukraine in 2025 allowed Mriya Aid to deepen partnerships, secure new international funding, observe evolving training and field operations firsthand, and better understand current needs. Our directors gave interviews to Ukrainian media and influencers. This English-language interview between Lesya Granger and Canada’s Ambassador to Ukraine, Natalka Cmoc, aired on the Ambassador’s Off the Record podcast and explains Mriya Aid’s mission and commitment.
One of the most meaningful moments was a three-day visit with women sappers in northern Ukraine. Having left civilian careers in 2022, they told us how training Mriya Aid supported has made them safer and more confident. Kateryna’s story stands out: since 2023, she has completed IMAS EOD Levels 1–3+ and is now training to become an underwater deminer - responding to the growing challenge of clearing mines and explosives from rivers, reservoirs, and critical infrastructure.
“When I returned to Ukraine with my IMAS L3 training, for three days I studied the materials for the Ukrainian sapper-deminer qualifications required to do this work professionally, and I passed those qualification exams immediately. Demining is an area of work that gives me great satisfaction and sense of purpose.”
Kateryna, sapper, State Special Transport Service of Ukraine, May 2025
Veterans and the Future
Mriya Aid also continued efforts to integrate veterans into humanitarian mine action through meaningful employment. In Vancouver, we supported a veterans rehabilitation program and Team Ukraine at the Invictus Games, engaged with Ukraine’s Ministry of Veterans Affairs and Ministry of Interior, and engaged with Prince Harry’s team to encourage him to visit Ukraine to show personal support for veterans - which he did in the summer later that year. We are now working with the Unconquered Foundation and Mines Advisory Group to launch a veteran-focused humanitarian mine action project in 2026.
Looking Ahead
We concluded 2025 with a clear understanding of our role and the work ahead. In 2026, Mriya Aid will continue its commitment to humanitarian demining, training, international standards, and - above all - consistent communication, encouragement, and support for those who carry out this dangerous but essential work every day.
We are deeply grateful to our partners, volunteers, and donors.
Without this shared commitment, the impact of our work for Ukraine and Ukrainians would not be possible.