Environmental damage in Ukraine caused by Russia’s full-scale invasion was estimated at $35.3 billion, with millions of hectares of natural reserves under threat, Ukraine’s environment minister Ruslan Strilets said on Monday.
One-fifth of protected areas in Ukraine is at risk of destruction and about 2,000 cases of environmental damages have already been recorded, Strilets said, showing slides to European Union lawmakers at a hearing in the EU Parliament in Strasbourg, France.
According to estimates from the Ukrainian government, the bill from air pollution caused by Russia’s war against Ukraine is so far about 25 billion euros and another 11.4 billion euros are needed to address damage to soil.
Citing a new methodology developed by the Ukrainian government to calculate the damages, Strilets said the seven-month-old war alone had caused 31 million tons of CO2 emissions, roughly the amount produced by New Zealand annually.
