Ukraine to create a Coordination Group to solve ecology issues in Kherson region

The Ukrainian government intends to set up a Coordination Working Group on Ecology to calculate all the damage caused by Russia's war in the Kherson region.

What is the problem?

Ukraine's Minister of Ecology Ruslan Strilets states that the amount of damage to the environment caused by Russia's new stage of war reaches over $51 billion. He noted that the final figure is unknown, as the number is increasing daily.

In May 2022, after Russia's withdrawal from the Kyiv region, the minister announced the first number of the caused damages, which was over $340 million.

In December of the same year, after the de-occupation of the Kharkiv region and the liberation of Kherson, Ukraine recorded over $500 billion in environmental damage.

We have updated data in August 2023. We continue to work on calculating losses after the Kakhovka dam explosion, the minister emphasized.

The amount of estimated environmental damage caused by the explosion has already exceeded $1,5 billion.

What is the solution?

The decision to establish the Environmental Coordination Working Group was made following a roundtable discussion of environmental problems in the Kherson region that arose as a result of Russian aggression.

How does it work?

The group's task will include a register of crimes committed by the Russian occupiers against Ukraine's environment. Representatives of regional and district authorities, local communities, civil society activists, and experts are woven into the joint work.

Olha Filina, Deputy Head of the Kherson Ecological Department, noted that it is vital to accurately calculate all the damage caused to the environment since the beginning of the full-scale war.

Volodymyr Molchanov, an expert at the Black Sea Center, also stressed the register of crimes will boost the involvement of international assistance. The most important environmental problem in the Kherson region is the mining of the territories, he said.