Destruction of oil depots, distribution and thermal power plants, critical infrastructure of Ukraine under the constant sights of the Russians.

They also shell and burn forests, pollute soils and water bodies.

The government has already calculated - ecology has already suffered losses of 54 billion dollars.

A significant part of nature conservation areas is under occupation, which means that the country's biodiversity is under threat, says TSN.

DESTRUCTION OF FORESTS

 Young oaks and pines are being planted in forestry in the village of Katyuzhanka, and even a year ago, enemy helicopters were flying here and the Russian military was occupying it.

Locals recall: all 36 days of the occupation - you could constantly hear how the invaders were cutting, taking away and burning trees.

"They cut down a part of the forest, cut trees arbitrarily - about 270 cubic meters worth UAH 1.7 million in damages.

They used this wood to build dugouts for themselves," says Mykhailo Linkevich, chief forester of the "Dymers Forestry" branch of the State Enterprise "Lies of Ukraine". 

And also - they stole and disassembled special equipment.

The forestry office was burned down, it has already been rebuilt.

In place of the destroyed trees, new ones are now accepted - almost 10 hectares have already been renewed. 

According to minecology, since the beginning of the full-scale war, the attackers have caused at least 54 billion dollars in total damage to our environment, and the amount is growing every day.

For example, a third of the forests were, or still are, in the zone of active hostilities.

350 thousand hectares - completely destroyed. 

This threatens floods and landslides.

Once green areas can turn into deserts.

"Currently, we have about 700,000 hectares of our forest under occupation.

Of them, about 500,000 hectares are on the mainland of Ukraine and 200,000 hectares of forest are on the territory of our Ukrainian Crimea," concludes Yevgeny Fedorenko, Deputy Minister of Environmental Protection and Natural Resources of Ukraine.

It will take half a century to restore what was lost

BIODIVERSITY - UNDER THREATEN

About nine hundred objects of the reserve fund are under occupation and shelling.

This is almost a million hectares of land.

That is, 20 percent of all nature conservation areas of Ukraine.

"Now we have about 600 species of animals and more than 750 plants and mushrooms under threat of destruction, or partial destruction," Fedorenko notes. 

Askania Nova under occupation / Photo: UNIAN

The largest steppe reserve not only in Ukraine, but also in all of Europe - Askania Nova in the Kherson region - is now also under enemy control.

There is no access to 33,000 hectares of protected areas.

But according to preliminary information, we could already lose, in particular, the population of saigas there.

Red book dolphins are also in danger.

Several thousand of them died in the Black Sea due to Russian military operations.

28 species of bats throughout Ukraine are also threatened with extinction.

And 120 species of wetland birds that nest in the south.

Shelling forces birds to change their routes, because three main migration corridors pass through our territory.

Whether the birds will return after the war - no one can predict. 

"It can already be stated that Ukraine has lost the nesting places of certain birds, such as the curled pelican, the red-billed martin of the Caspian, and the red-billed tern," the ministry says. 

How war affects all living things was experienced in the Nizhny Dniester National Nature Park.

There are up to two hundred and sixty species of birds here at different times of the year.

Although the invaders did not get here, the shelling is very close.

One of the rockets fell on the territory of the park, and last year the birds, frightened by the explosions, could not hatch their offspring.

"Our scientists noticed a lot of changes that took place with the advent of the war.

It even happened that flocks of black sparrows appeared - from soot, dust, ashes", - they say in the park. 

The birds are black, they say in the national park, and because of shelling, in particular, of energy and industrial facilities. 

POISONED AIR

In March of last year, the Rashists fired several rockets at an oil depot near the village of Kalynivka in the Kyiv region.

The fire was extinguished in 5 days, 6 thousand tons of fuel were burned.

20 thousand tons of pollutants entered the atmosphere.

"The biggest amount of carbon dioxide got into the air.

A large amount of sulfur was released," states Andrii Vagin, deputy head of the state ecological inspection of the capital district.

A runny nose, a sore throat, dizziness and pain in the eyes are just a small list of what the locals could feel immediately after the explosion.

But the danger actually lies much deeper, warns Minecology.

After all, depending on the destroyed infrastructure object, arsenic, mercury, anhydrides, furans, dioxins also enter the atmosphere... Experts estimate the damage from atmospheric air pollution to be at least 990 billion hryvnias.

"Persistent organic pollutants have such a feature that they accumulate in the human body ++ have a carcinogenic and mutagenic factor," experts say.   

Even our grandchildren will feel the consequences. 

POLLUTION OF SOILS

There is also a threat of damage or destruction of warehouses with seemingly safe food products.

In particular, oil and various preserves were previously stored in hangars in the Kyiv region.

The Russians shelled the warehouse last March.

5 thousand square meters of territory burned for 2 weeks.

Toxic substances produced as a result of burning seeped into the soil.

"We conducted a soil study and the excess of heavy hydrocarbons and soils was recorded 348 times, and this is already after a year has passed," reports Andriy Vagin.

The total losses from the contamination of Ukrainian soils with chemical substances have already exceeded 15 billion hryvnias, and the losses from the contamination with war waste, according to preliminary estimates, have reached eight hundred and sixty billion.

We are talking, in particular, about the remains of equipment, ammunition and broken infrastructure. 

DEAD WATER

Dangerous chemicals eventually end up in the water.

This is exactly what happened after the fire at the oil depot near Kalynyvka in the Fastiv district of Kyiv region.

"Signs of oil products were detected in the surface waters about a kilometer from the oil depot.

As of July-September of 2022, the excess was 12 times the maximum permissible concentration", - reports the deputy head of the department of the specialized environmental prosecutor's office of the Office of the Prosecutor General of Ukraine Bohdan Mazuruk. 

Fire at the oil depot

A mass plague of fish began in a local reservoir poisoned by chemicals.

Representatives of the local authorities dug a lake where oil products and other dangerous substances would accumulate.

There is still an iridescent film on the water.

The government says: losses due to water pollution - Ukraine has already suffered more than 58 billion hryvnias. 

In addition, we may face the problem of water shortage.

In particular, due to the opening and destruction by the occupiers of the locks at the Kakhovskaya HPP in order to supply stolen water to Crimea.

"Without access to drinking water, we may have several million residents of our south," states Fedorenko. 

PUNISHMENT FOR CRIMES

The owners of the burned food warehouse in the Kyiv region filed a lawsuit in the European Court of Human Rights to recover a billion hryvnias of financial losses from Russia.

"I hope that when we win and it will already have such a political aspect that all the countries that help us will force the aggressor country to compensate us for these losses," says the director of the enterprise Valery Bantser. 

After the bombing of an oil depot near Kalynyvka, law enforcement officers opened proceedings under the article of violation of the laws and customs of war.

It also provides for responsibility for causing damage to the environment.

"This is a particularly serious crime - more than 10 years, somewhere up to 15 years under the article.

Now all these circumstances are being established, including the persons who may be brought to justice," the prosecutor's office says. 

However, after the completion of the investigation, the article may be reclassified to another - ecocide.

"Before the war, this article was almost never applied, due to the fact that it has many concepts, such as mass destruction, ecological disaster - there is also no definition", - explains the head of the legal department of the international charity organization "Ecology. Law. Human" Olga Melen-Zabramna.

In general, representatives of the state eco-inspection have already registered over two and a half thousand cases of environmental crimes in Ukraine.

About a thousand criminal proceedings have been opened.

The aggressor country has to pay for all this, but how to make it do it?

Through national courts, or the UN Security Council - ideas are doomed to failure, lawyers say.

Therefore, international specialists have to find other options.

"They are thinking, first of all, about creating a compensation commission and there is also talk about creating a tribunal for Russia.

Perhaps there will be a question about compensation for damage," says Olga Melen-Zabramna.

Reimbursement of the multibillion-dollar damages caused to the environment may become part of the reparations, or they may be recovered at the expense of the seizure of frozen and seized Russian assets.

But all this is most likely already after the end of the war.

Meanwhile, Ukraine's task is to preserve what is left, restore what was lost and constantly remind the international community that Russia must answer for everything 

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