The Minister of Environmental Protection and Natural Resources of Ukraine, Ruslan Strilets, said that due to the blowing up the Kakhovka dam by Russians, Ukraine potentially lost 80,000 hectares of protected areas and almost 50% of forests, which is 55,000 hectares.

As reported by the environmental ministry, to help Ukraine assess all the caused damage, the UNEP mission is already working in Ukraine. Experts are already preparing recommendations for the restoration of protected areas affected by flooding.

‘Today the war is going on in Ukraine. We have new challenges. One of them is the recording and calculation of environmental losses. The second is to hold Russia accountable and make the occupier pay the bill’, the minister stated.

He also added that despite the full-scale war, Ukraine is working on the implementation of environmental and climate acts of the EU, so that the post-war recovery meets the Sustainable Development Goals and the Green Deal.

‘We are adopting European integration laws. In September 2023, we plan to open the Climate Office in Kyiv. It will be another important step towards the introduction of climate policy in Ukraine’, the minister concluded.