During the full-scale invasion by Russia in February 2022, Ukraine's environment suffered damages totaling 2.2 trillion hryvnias.
This was announced by the Minister of Ecology and Natural Resources of Ukraine, Ruslan Strylets, as reported by DW.
This includes 1.024 trillion hryvnias in damages from land pollution and soil contamination, 1.081 trillion hryvnias in harm from air pollution, including the burning of petroleum products, forest fires, and the ignition of other objects, as well as 82.2 billion hryvnias in damages from water resource and maritime pollution, the minister stated during the international forum United for Nature.
According to him, there have been 3,600 environmental crimes recorded against Ukraine to date.
"The first challenge in environmental restoration is demining the territory. Today, we have over 172,000 square kilometers of potentially mined areas. We can only restore the ecosystem after demining," said Strylets.
It is worth noting that Ukraine is currently the most mined country in the world. Nearly one-third of the territory, about 174,000 square kilometers, is considered potentially dangerous. The Ukrainian government aims to return 80% of these areas to economic use within 10 years.
