The damage caused by the Russians to the Ukrainian environment during half a year of war already amounts to almost a trillion hryvnias. This was announced by Minister of Environment Ruslan Strelets at a briefing on September 1.
These are losses according to three indicators: pollution of air, land and water resources. In particular, the damage from emissions of pollutants into the air alone already reaches 823 billion hryvnias. Damage to soil and land exceeds 138 billion hryvnias. There will still be separate methods and calculations for damage to Ukrainian forests, the Black and Azov seas, subsoil, nature reserve fund, etc.
In general, almost a third of the entire forest fund of Ukraine was damaged during half a year of war. At the same time, 600 thousand hectares of forest are currently under occupation. Also, the number of forest fires has increased several times: in 2021, there was only one large fire in the country, the area of which exceeded 5 hectares, this year there are already more than 100 of them.
Estimated damage to flora and forests amounts to 183.2 billion hryvnias. In addition, the Russians occupied 8 nature reserves and 12 national natural parks. Yes, almost 80% of the territory of the National Park "Holy Mountains" was destroyed. In May, the Kinburn Spit burned for a whole week due to hostilities — relict forests were burning. There is currently a humanitarian crisis in the occupied Askania Nova.
Minister Ruslan Strilets noted that he continues to calculate the damages, because this is important for the formation of lawsuits against Russia and for receiving compensation for the destroyed environment.