In Ukraine, for half a year of the war, the damage to the environment amounted to more than 962 billion hryvnias, without taking into account the damage to forests, the Black and Azov seas, the subsoil, the nature reserve fund, etc.
This was stated by the head of the Ministry of Environment, Ruslan Strilets, during a briefing at Media Center Ukraine, the Ministry of Environment reports on Facebook.
Such calculations were carried out according to new methods developed by experts of the Ministry of Environment to determine the amount of damage caused by pollution of atmospheric air, land and water resources as a result of military aggression.
Thus, the damage from emissions of polluting substances into the air reaches 823 billion UAH, and to soils and lands – more than 138 billion UAH, to flora and forests – 183.2 billion UAH.
Strilets noted that during the half year of the war, the team of the Ministry of Environment established more than 2,000 facts of damage to the environment.
"As a result of the full-scale invasion of the russians, almost a third of the entire forest fund of Ukraine was damaged. The number of forest fires has increased several times. Last year, there was only 1 large fire in Ukraine with an area of more than 5 hectares. This year there are more than 100 of them," he said.
Strelits also noted that about 20% of nature conservation areas are affected by the war, and 2.9 million hectares of the Emerald Network and 17 Ramsar sites with an area of more than 600,000 hectares are at risk.
"The russians occupied 8 of our nature reserves and 12 national natural parks. Russia showed what life is like under occupation. Thus, almost 80% of the territory of the "Holy Mountains" National Park was destroyed. In May, the Kinburn spit burned for a whole week due to hostilities. Relict forests were burning there. There is currently a humanitarian crisis in the occupied "Ascania Nova". And this list can be continued," the minister added.
Strilets emphasized that the team of the Ministry of Environment will continue to calculate the damage to nature from russian aggression, because this is important for the formation of lawsuits against russia and for the Ukrainian people to receive compensation for environmental damage.
As EcoPolitic before, Sofia Kosarevych, an analyst at the Transnistrian Center, said that Ukraine will be able to receive compensation only if it properly collects and documents the evidence that confirms the damages and prove a causal relationship between the russian aggression and these losses.
