The Russians have destroyed at least a third of the forest fund in the Luhansk region, as well as nature reserves.
This information was reported by the head of the Luhansk Regional State Administration, Artem Lysogor.
According to Lysogor, the Luhansk region had a huge potential for a nature reserve fund, with a total area of greenery exceeding 95 thousand hectares.
"One of the largest forests in the Ukrainian east, unique untouched steppes, and dozens of reserves with rare species of flora and fauna. All of this is being completely destroyed by the Russians today," emphasized the head of the Regional State Administration.
He noted that assessing the environmental damage today is difficult. However, thanks to remote sensing of land plots using satellite technologies and the use of other modern methods, the regional environmental inspection has managed to gather data on the destruction of over 26 thousand hectares of the region's forest fund.
According to Lysogor, only the material damage caused by the fires, according to preliminary estimates, amounts to over 180 billion hryvnias.