In early October, Ukraine’s prosecutors recorded more than 265 Russian war crimes against the environment and 14 cases of ecocide, Borys Indychenko, Head of the Environmental Prosecutor’s Office, said at the conference, dedicated to the environment, in Rome.
The largest of these was the explosion of the Kakhovka hydroelectric power plant dam on June 23. The explosion caused the flooding of 80 settlements on the territory of about 610 square kilometres of land, the death of 33 people and an extremely destructive impact on the environment of Ukraine.
Meanwhile, the press service of the Ministry of Reintegration reported that Russia has committed 2,500 environmental crimes since the beginning of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine. According to the Ministry of Reintegration, each day of the war costs Ukraine approximately 120 million euros (over $127) in damages.
In addition, the Ukrainian NGO “Forest Initiatives and Society” estimated the damage caused by Russians to Ukrainian forests over the past year at $4 billion.
Read also:
- Ukraine’s losses from Russia’s destruction of Kakhovka dam surpass $11 billion
- Ukraine launches investigation into ecocide after Nova Kakhovka attack
- PACE recognizes Stalin’s Holodomor famine as genocide against Ukrainians
