The First Deputy Minister of Environmental Protection and Natural Resources Ruslan Grechanyk noted on March 11, 2023, that the environmental damage in Ukraine exceeds UAH 2 trillion as a result of the Russian full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
Source: The First Deputy Minister of Environmental Protection and Natural Resources Ruslan Grechanyk, Oleksandr Filchakov, the head of the Kharkiv Regional Prosecutor’s Office
“We are counting every destroyed tree by Russian troops. And every hryvnia [Ukrainian currency – ed.] that Russia will pay us for what it destroyed. Every day we continue to establish new facts of damage and destruction. According to preliminary estimates, the total damage to the environment is already more than UAH 2 trillion: this includes land contamination, air pollution, burned forests, and destroyed facilities. Russia is provoking a climate crisis, a nuclear crisis because of the situation with the occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, and a humanitarian crisis,” said the First Deputy Minister of Environmental Protection and Natural Resources.
Oleksandr Filchakov, the head of the Kharkiv Regional Prosecutor’s Office, noted that the agency investigates cases of intentional or accidental damage to the natural environment of Ukraine by Russian troops.
“We record and analyze all crimes in the field of ecology, attacks on industrial facilities, and oil depots,” clarified Oleksandr Filchakov.
See also: Almost 60,000 hectares of forests were burned by Russian rockets and shells in Ukraine
