During the year of the full-scale war, the occupiers caused damage to Ukraine's environment in the amount of about 1.9 trillion hryvnias.
During this time, more than 2,300 crimes against nature were documented, the Minister of Environmental Protection and Natural Resources Ruslan Strilets reported on Facebook.
"Not every European country has the same amount of forest that the Russians destroyed in Ukraine," Strilets emphasized.
He said that currently almost 500,000 hectares of forest are occupied or are in the war zone. 2.4 million hectares of forests have already been cleared and need restoration.
Sagittarius also named some eco-losses, in particular:
- one fifth of the reserve fund "felt" the consequences of hostilities;
- 10 national natural parks, 8 reserves, 2 biosphere reserves are under occupation;
- about 600 species of plants and 750 species of animals, including red-listed species, are under threat of extinction;
- 132 mineral deposits are occupied, and the industry's losses for the year reach 7.76 trillion hryvnias.
He added that the most industrialized part of Ukraine is located in the war zone.
The head of the Ministry of Environment emphasized that from the first days of the full-scale invasion, Ukraine faced unprecedented nuclear terror. Thus, the Chornobyl NPP was under occupation for 35 days and suffered losses of 3.2 billion hryvnias.
"Today we have a new challenge. The situation with Russia's actions at the Kakhovsky Reservoir can have colossal consequences," Strilets said.
He explained that this threatens not only the deprivation of drinking water for 1 million Ukrainians. Thus, a decrease in the water level in the reservoir can lead to the failure of the cooling systems of the Zaporizhzhya NPP.
"This is not an exhaustive list of the crimes of the occupying country. However, we continue to carefully record them in order to present the aggressor with a score after our victory", emphasized Strilets.
Earlier, EcoPolitic wrote, that the discharge of water from the Kakhovskaya HPP by the Russian occupiers may violate the rules for the operation of reservoirs on the Dnieper, which will cause a threat to 70% of the population of Ukraine.
As EcoPolitic previously reported, eco-inspectors calculated that in the Luhansk region due to a full-scale war 6,030,720.00 m2 of territory was littered.
