Ukraine’s environment minister Ruslan Strilets said that the “silent victim” of Russia’s invasion has been the country’s environment, now calculated at over €56 billion ($ 60 bn) in damages so far.
According to Strilets, Ukraine lost over 14km³ of fresh water from the destruction of the Kakhovka Dam alone, which cost an estimated €3.8 billion ($4,12 bn)
To document the over 5,000 identified “cases of ecocide,” the Ukrainian government has developed a mobile app for citizens to report pollution incidents like fires and toxic spills.
“The app also provides Ukrainians with the latest information on air, soil, water and radiation pollution,” Euractiv reported.
Strilets states it is “not hard” to prioritize environmental protection during wartime, as “Ukraine is a civilized country which understands that the environment is the future.”
The minister hopes these efforts “will lead to the first case in human history of environmental reparations being paid by one state to another.”
He links cleanup to economic priorities like wheat exports, noting “150,000-155,000 km2 of Ukrainian territory is potentially mined, and much of this is agricultural land.”
In early October, Ukraine’s prosecutors recorded over 265 Russian war crimes against the environment and 14 cases of ecocide.
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