Occupiers cause USD 57 billion in environmental damage since war start

Since the beginning of the war, the russian occupiers have caused USD 57 billion in damage to the environment.

This was announced on Facebook by the Minister of Environmental Protection, Ruslan Strilets, Ukrainian News Agency reports.

"Over the past 2.5 months, the amount of damage to the environment has increased by almost USD 1.5 billion. Today it is USD 57 billion. And these are far from the final figures," he wrote.

Strilets noted that Ukraine is working on the development and implementation of a comprehensive plan for ecological recovery from the consequences of the war.

"We have the support of international partners. The UNEP mission has already prepared a project to assess the environmental consequences of blowing up the Kakhovka HEPP, based on this report, an environmental restoration program will be developed. We have begun partial restoration of ecosystems: we are restoring forests where possible. According to the program of President Volodymyr Zelenskyy "Green "country" this year, the forest was regenerated on almost 16,000 hectares. The forces of national parks workers sowed hundreds of hectares of the bottom of the Kakhovka Reservoir with annual plants. This will help prevent dust storms and the spread of alien species," he noted.

As Ukrainian News Agency earlier reported, at the beginning of July, the Ministry of Environment estimated the damage caused to the environment due to the russian occupiers' detonation of the Kakhovka HEPP at UAH 146 billion.