Tuka suggested to gradually evacuate people from Donbas

Due to the ecological situation in the east of Ukraine, people will not be able to live there for 10 years, therefore it is necessary to resettle local residents from there.

As reported by Georgiy Tuka, Deputy Minister for the temporarily occupied territories and internally displaced persons, during the program “Pidsumky Dnya” (Results of the Day) on the Kanal 5 (Channel 5).

“The question is not about saving Donbas. It is finished. Now this entails the gradual liberation of this region from people, because it will be uninhabitable for 10 years”, – he said.

The Deputy Chairman of the MTOT added: “The Moscovia will suffer as we will. It is our common disaster. It will not be possible to wall off”.

According to him, it is necessary to create international discussions to address the issue of environmental disaster in Donbas.

“I just realized that the problem should be raised to the highest level and international discussions for the purpose of finding solutions to this problem should be created… we just need to “shout” to the whole Europe about the possible consequences”, – the Deputy Minister said.

As a reminder, on June 25, Iryna Herashchenko, Representative of Ukraine in the Humanitarian Subgroup of the Trilateral Contact Group, stated that she considers the ecological problem of Donbas the most important issue after security and the humanitarian component.

“7 of them are completely destroyed and can not be restored. 115 Ukrainian mines are located in the occupied territories and equipment has been stolen and exported from some of them, several mines are flooded to a critical point and it is necessary to immediately drain water, otherwise irreparable consequences may happen: landslides, pollution of groundwater, rivers”, – Herashchenko wrote on her Facebook page.

According to her, German experts are ready to immediately to visit the place of disaster and to provide help, however foreign experts are blocked by the militants.

“The Water Purification Plant is in critical condition and in recent weeks militants began to shell the main pumping station and this threatens to leave 600 thousand citizens on both sides of the contact line without water in the summer”, – Herashchenko added.

She also added that the workers refuse to leave to repair the pumping station after the shelling.

“Several days ago, after the shelling, repair teams went to the damaged area in order to repair the pumping station and restore water supply to tens of thousands of people. So, this repair team was shelled, people did not have time to reach the shelter, they fell directly to the ground, and miraculously nobody has died. Now the workers simply refuse to leave for repairs!”, – she noted.

Earlier, Ukrainian side of the Joint Centre for Control and Coordination (JCCC) reported that due to the flooding of the Artem and “Pivdenna” (South) methane gas rises to the surface. It leaks into the basements of residential and industrial buildings, which can lead to explosions and poisoning of people.

In addition, an industrial disaster could threaten the settlement of Novhorods’ke near Toretsk.

“It has long been necessary to carry out work to strengthen the anti-damage protection of the sludge dam at the local phenolic plant. To date, almost 33,000 tons of liquid waste containing phenol, naphthalene, formaldehyde, sulfuric acid, petroleum products and other chemical compounds formed during the work of the enterprise accumulated in this artificial reservoir”, – said in a statement.

As a result of shelling by militants, a pipeline was put out of operation at the plant, through which the water was pumped out and the liquid level in the accumulator could soon reach a critical level.

“The overflow of the sludge accumulator can lead to the destruction of the dam and then a poisonous stream will pour into Novhorods’ke, nearest settlement, then it will enter the Kryvyi Torets’ River and then into the Siverskyi Donets River, which is one of the few sources of drinking water for the entire Luhansk and part of the Donetsk region”, – as emphasized by the JCCC.

It is reported that from the beginning of 2017, the Phenlic Plant of Toretsk sent 9 requests to provide security for the period of repairs, but the militants have not provided a guarantee.