The State environmental inspectorate of Ukraine noted on January 16, 2023, that their specialists calculated large-scale environmental changes caused by the war of the Russian Federation against Ukraine. More than 59 thousand hectares of forests and other plantations were burned by rockets and shells in Ukraine due to the Russian invasion.
Source: The State environmental inspectorate of Ukraine
-“59,150 hectares of forests and other plantations were burned by Russian rockets and projectiles, some of them may be restored within ten years, and this is according to the most optimistic calculations, the rest are lost forever,” emphasized the State environmental inspectorate of Ukraine.
Also, as a result of 10 months of the war:
- more than 280 thousand m² of soil is contaminated with dangerous substances;
- 11 million m² of land is littered with the remains of destroyed objects and ammunition;
- almost 686,200 tons of petroleum products burned during the shelling, polluting the air with dangerous substances;
- more than 979 thousand m² of facilities, including critical infrastructure, were destroyed, and their remains caused damage to the environment;
- 932.5 kg – mass of extraneous objects, materials, waste or other substances;
- 410,150,000 m³ – the volume of arbitrarily collected or used water.
The State environmental inspectorate of Ukraine says that these changes extremely negatively affect the natural environment not only in Ukraine but also in Europe.
See also: A third of Ukraine’s forest fund was affected during the six months of the war
