The amount of damage caused by Russian aggression to Ukraine's environment has already exceeded two trillion hryvnias and is constantly growing. This figure was announced by the Prime Minister of Ukraine Denys Shmyhal during his speech at the forum "United for Justice. United for Nature" forum, UNN reports.
The Prime Minister clarified that since the beginning of the Russian invasion, almost four thousand Russian crimes against the environment have been recorded.
"According to the Ministry of Environment, almost 3,600 Russian crimes against the environment were recorded during the full-scale invasion. The enemy has caused us losses worth UAH 2.2 trillion, and the numbers are growing every day: our forests are burning, biodiversity is being destroyed, and protected areas are disappearing.
The shelling generated more than 750,000 tons of destruction waste, which contaminated 30 million hectares of territory, and hundreds of thousands of square kilometers are potentially contaminated with mines and shells," Shmyhal said.
He added that in 2023, more than 200,000 hectares of agricultural land were brought back into operation. This year, more than 500,000 hectares are planned to be inspected for the possibility of conducting agricultural activities.
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Oleksandr Ruvin, Director of Kyiv Scientific Research Institute of Forensic Expertise, has previously mentioned the amount of two trillion hryvnias in damage to the Ukrainian environment. According to him, the final figure can be announced only after the complete de-occupation of Ukrainian lands and all the necessary studies have been conducted on them.
"The shelling of industrial facilities, transport infrastructure and residential buildings, military actions of the occupiers in the forests in the Chornobyl Exclusion Zone, in the Black and Azov Seas, as well as the destruction of water supply and sewage systems, unsafe waste management in the temporarily occupied territories lead to large-scale and serious environmental problems with long-term consequences for the nature and health of the people of Ukraine.
The disaster at the Kakhovka hydroelectric power plant was unprecedented, and there is a constant danger of shelling of chemical plants and nuclear power facilities, etc.
As of today, according to preliminary estimates, the damage to Ukraine's environment caused by Russia's military aggression amounts to more than UAH 2 trillion. This amount will definitely be increased many times over when Ukraine completely liberates Ukrainian territories from Russian invaders and conducts all the necessary environmental examinations and studies," said Oleksandr Ruvin.