Damage to ecology in Donbas estimated at 14 bln
The losses caused by destruction of area conservation in the Donbas conflict zone amount to about UAH 14 billion.
This is stated in the study “Military operations in eastern Ukraine – civilizational challenges to humanity”, prepared by the international charitable organization “Ecology – Law – Person.”
“The situation that has developed in eastern Ukraine, calls for urgent action to identify the man-made environmental problems caused by the war, to make a level of danger public, to localize each of the issues and to elaborate a detailed plan to eliminate them,” reads the study.
It’s impossible to make unbiased estimate of harm to the environment inflicted over the period of the armed confrontation, as there are virtually no supervisory authorities in the conflict zone in the territory of Donetsk and Luhansk regions and the shelling is ongoing.
However, in particular, the study has shown that about 3,000 fires have occurred in war zone in the east of Ukraine, which is 20 times as much as it was over the same period in 2013. It was found that there was increased concentration of oxides of sulfur, nitrogen and carbon during the shelling of the city of Shchastia in Luhansk region. About 1,000 hectares of the territory of Krasnolyman forestry in Donetsk region were damaged by fire as a result of attacks using the Grad multiple rocket launchers in summer. The losses caused by destruction of area conservation in the combat zone amount to about UAH 14 billion.
Following the study, the activists recommend that the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine should set up the information-analytical center for gathering information on environment conditions in the conflict zone, evacuate people from the dangerous areas. The Defense Ministry is proposed to increase the number of units of environmental safety and to resume work of the Central Military and Environmental Laboratory. The representatives of NGOs are recommended to create a portal to register the environment damages and to involve public television in addressing the problems associated with environmental safety.