Kyiv: war caused $76 billion worth of damage on Ukraine’s ecology

The ecological damage inflicted on Ukraine by Russia’s full-scale invasion amounts to 3 trillion hryvnia ($76 billion), Ukrainian Environmental Protection Minister Ruslan Strilets said as quoted by Interfax-Ukraine.

“The Russians, like barbarians, destroy everything without realising that the environment knows no borders… We have already counted losses: 3 trillion hryvnia of ecological damage — soil and air pollution, burnt forests, and destroyed natural resources,” Strilets told the United for Justice conference in Lviv.

According to him, some of Ukraine’s natural resources are lost for good. Moreover, his ministry calculated that almost one-third of the country’s forests are damaged which amounts to almost 3 million hectares. Meanwhile, 500,000 hectares of forests are either occupied or located in active combat zones, the minister noted.