More than €65 billion in damages and nearly 6,500 cases of ecosystem destruction

This is the extent of the environmental damage that our environmentalists and experts have been able to calculate. However, the real damage caused by the war is much higher.

This was stated by Svitlana Hrynchuk, Minister of Environmental Protection and Natural Resources of Ukraine, in her speech at a joint briefing by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine and UNEP on the impact of Russian aggression on the environment in Ukraine.

Together with Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine Yevhen Perebyinos, Deputy Head of the Committee on Environmental Policy and Nature Management of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine Olena Kryvoruchkina, UN Resident Coordinator in Ukraine Matthias Schmale, Head of the UNEP Office in Ukraine Pierre-Carlo Sandei, ambassadors and representatives of international organisations, she discussed further steps to protect the environment.

“The explosion of the Kakhovka hydroelectric power station, the pollution of the Black Sea, forest fires caused by hostilities – all of these can have irreversible consequences for nature. Each of these cases leads to changes in ecosystems and has consequences that go far beyond the borders of our country,” stressed Svitlana Grinchuk.

In their speeches, representatives of UNEP and the UN stressed the importance of environmental protection in Ukraine’s strategic development processes and support for our green recovery.

“The world has been fighting for many years against climate change, for the ‘good’ state of water and for the preservation of natural ecosystems. The methods of warfare used by Russia are destroying many years of work in this area. While hundreds of organisations are working towards this goal, the Russian aggressor is distancing humanity from it,” Svitlana Grinchuk stated.