Nearly 25% of Ukraine’s territory, both on land and in its waters, is contaminated with explosive hazards, while the total environmental damage caused by the war has already reached €138 billion, Minister of Economy, Environment and Agriculture Oleksii Sobolev said at the Ukraine Recovery Conference (URC 2026) on Friday.
“Large areas of Ukraine’s territory have been contaminated, and some ecosystems and natural assets have been lost irreversibly,” the minister said.
According to Sobolev, hundreds of thousands of people have also lost access to safe drinking water.
He therefore called on the international community to “develop joint instruments for environmental protection, because the environment is not limited by the borders of a single state.”
He added that, as a candidate for EU membership, Ukraine also needs to reshape its environmental and climate policies.
However, Sobolev noted that achieving this will require substantial investment, “from waste management systems to industrial modernization monitoring, as well as biodiversity protection and climate change mitigation.”
