The Russian full-scale invasion of Ukraine, launched on 24 February 2022, has renewed the focus on societal resilience and total defence in national debates and institutional planning globally. Ukraine provides daily reminders of how a nation can mobilize to resist external aggression while sustaining essential civilian functions under continuous attack. Yet, designing a whole-of-society approach able to withstand a contemporary large-scale armed conflict is a monumental challenge. As countries such as Canada and Sweden (re)think their total, whole-of-society defence policies, the Ukrainian experience with mine action offers an often-overlooked source of knowledge for designing resilient civilian institutions capable of operating throughout prolonged conflict and responding to explosive threats. This paper argues that civil preparedness planning should draw more systematically on humanitarian mine action by treating demining and risk education as resilience capabilities, preparing nationwide responses to explosive threats, investing in specialized civilian skills before crises, and safeguarding the legal distinction between civilian and military functions. It also provides policy recommendations grounded in lessons learned in Ukraine and beyond by actors working in humanitarian mine action and in the humanitarian sector at large.
