Ukraine to seek damages from Russia over huge environmental harm

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Kyiv has recorded 1,500 cases of the destruction of ecosystems or contamination of land.

Russia's invasion of Ukraine has caused huge environmental damage for which Kyiv will seek compensation in international courts, Ukraine's environment minister said on Thursday.

Ruslan Strilets, Minister of Environmental Protection and Natural Resources, said the war had destroyed ecosystems, deprived wildlife of its natural habitat and contaminated land in one of the world's main grain producers.

"Over the past 20 years, this is the first military conflict in the world that has caused such large-scale environmental damage," he told a news conference.

"Russian missiles hit our oil depots, thermal power plants, chemical plants - this definitely affects the environment. Forests are burning, valuable protected things are being destroyed."

Fighting near the defunct Chornobyl atomic power station, scene of the world's worst nuclear accident in 1986, had caused fires over almost 12,000 hectares of land, killing flora and fauna in a unique environment, Strilets said.

Kyiv has recorded 1,500 cases of the destruction of ecosystems or contamination of land, he added.


Read more: https://www.jpost.com/environment-and-climate-change/article-707148



A view shows burning trees and a road covered in heavy smoke in the exclusion zone around the Chernobyl nuclear power plant (photo credit: State Emergency Service of Ukraine in Kiev Region/Handout via Reuters)



A satellite image shows an overview of Chernobyl, amid Russia's invasion of Ukraine, Ukraine, March 10, 2022. (credit: Maxar Technologies/Handout via Reuters Attention Editors)