The Russians are carrying out barbaric deforestation, which will lead to an ecological disaster
The Russian army continues to actively destroy the natural resource potential of the temporarily occupied Ukrainian territories.
This was stated by the Deputy Minister of Defense of Ukraine, Hanna Malіar: “Since the beginning of the occupation, Russian enterprises have organized forest harvesting in Zaporizhzhia, Kherson and other temporarily occupied regions of Ukraine. At the same time, entrepreneurs carry out uncontrolled barbaric felling of forest plantations, which, if continued, will inevitably lead to catastrophic consequences for the environment.”
Hanna Malіar emphasized that most of the forest massifs in the southern region are of artificial origin and they were specially created to protect against wind, soil and water erosion, performing the function of recreational and forest improvement plantations.
“At the same time, during the last decade of March, In the Mariupol region, the intensive movement of convoys of Russian trucks loaded with freshly felled roundwood along highways E105 and M18 was recorded,” said the Deputy Minister of Defense of Ukraine.
In addition, Hanna Malіar emphasizes, in some settlements of the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine, the Russian command has forbidden the local population to carry out agricultural work in the fields, which will probably lead to the disruption of this year’s spring sowing campaign, and in the future to the abandonment of agricultural lands.
The Ministry of Environment noted that, according to preliminary estimates, losses of 10 trillion hryvnias were caused to the subsoil of Ukraine. Seven methods have been adopted and registered in the Ministry of Justice, according to which the damages caused to the environment by the Russian Federation’s war against Ukraine are calculated.
During the year of the full-scale Russian-Ukrainian war, the Russian Federation caused large-scale damage to Ukraine’s ecology. As of January 2023, according to the State Environmental Inspection, the damage to the Ukrainian ecology amounts to more than 1 trillion 743 billion hryvnias, or more than 47.6 billion dollars.
Due to the war started by Russia, the Black Sea dolphins had to migrate to the shallow waters of the northwestern part of the Black Sea. They usually winter in the deep sea off the coast of Crimea, Georgia and Turkey, but exposure to Russian ship sonars and bombardment has changed their course.
The Russian attack on Ukraine resulted in the deaths of at least 50,000 dolphins. Animals die mostly because of Russian warships, in particular submarines, and today losses can amount to about 20% of the population.
During the year of the full-scale Russian-Ukrainian war, the Russians caused almost 1.9 trillion hryvnias of damage to Ukraine’s environment.