Fire destroyed 7 thousand hectares of steppe in the occupied reserve Askania-Nova shutterstock

Fire destroyed 7 thousand hectares of steppe in the occupied reserve Askania-Nova

Katerina Belousova

This is the second fire in the reserve in August-September 2023

A fire broke out in the unique biosphere reserve "Askania-Nova" in the occupied Kherson region.

The fire covered 7,000 hectares of the steppe in the "Southern" section, the Ministry of Environmental Protection and Natural Resources reports on Telegram.

"The way to stop the destruction of nature through war is the implementation of Volodymyr Zelenskyi's Peace Formula, namely point 8 "Environmental safety", the press service of the Ministry of Environment emphasized.

In Kakhovka District reported that the cause of the fire was a lightning strike. The fire started on Friday, September 1, which, according to the publication, lasted until Saturday, September 2.

As you know, this is the second fire in the reserve in August-September 2023. Thus, on August 22, a fire broke out in the "Veliky Chapelsky pod" area, where there are wetlands of international importance. Due to the actions of the occupiers, about 300 hectares of the steppe burned.

Earlier, EcoPolitic wrote, that in the Dzharylgatsky National Natural Park in the occupied Kherson Oblast, a fire raged on the most valuable steppe areas for about a week.

As EcoPolitic previously reported, eco-activists surveyed the territory of the de-occupied Kamianska Sich National Nature Park in Kherson Oblast, through which the front line passed twice. They found numerous destructions and damage to ecosystems, eruptions from explosions, felling of trees, traces of fires, etc.

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