Harmful substances from the drainage canal of the Azovstal plant may enter the Sea of ​​Azov and will not have a significant impact on the environmental situation in the sea.

This was said on the air of the telethon, acting. Minister of Environmental Protection and Natural Resources Ruslan Strelets, informing about the analysis of the situation carried out by experts.

He noted that after receiving an appeal from the mayor of Mariupol about the likely ingress of pollutants into the sea from Azovstal, the ministry turned to specialists, and scientists, including foreign ones, and instructed the environmental inspectorate to carry out an analysis.

"All the brightest scientists worked on this issue. Today we have no confirmation (that there was a hit of harmful substances in the sea , because it is very difficult to establish what is happening there because specialists cannot get into the territory. But we studied all the materials and documents that we had. If we delve into the details given by the experts, even if, due to the possible damage to the protective dam at Azovstal, water from the plant’s drainage channel gets into the Sea of ​​Azov, then there will be some significant changes, there will be no significant impact on the situation in the Sea of ​​Azov. Because the dilution will be so high that the concentration of this substance will be well below the detection limit of these hazardous substances," Ruslan Strelets said.

He added that in 2019 the dam was carefully examined, and experts established the satisfactory condition of all its protective structures.

"Therefore, in the event of some force majeure circumstances, it must contain the ingress of harmful substances into the Sea of ​​Azov, even if the container itself is damaged somewhere," he said.

The head of the department said that the facts of ecocides by Russian troops in Ukraine are recorded so that the occupier's answer for the losses inflicted today on the environment.