Svetlana Grinchuk discussed the damage to Ukraine's environment caused by the full-scale invasion over the past 1,000 days.
71 billion dollars in losses and 180 million tons of greenhouse gas emissions - this is the scale of damage to Ukraine's nature over 1000 days of large-scale aggression by the Russian Federation.
This was discussed today with international media at COP29 in Baku.
During the full-scale invasion:
- Russia has committed over 6,500 crimes against our environment;
- more than six million Ukrainians have had to seek temporary protection in European countries, resulting in an additional 3.3 million tons of CO2 emissions;
- due to military actions and wildfires, the carbon absorption capacity of Ukraine's forests has decreased by 1.7 million tons;
- a total of 3 million hectares of forests have been destroyed due to the war;
- the area of Ukraine contaminated with explosive materials is 139,000 sq. km — this is twice the size of Azerbaijan.
However, despite everything and without waiting for the war to end, Ukraine is actively working on restoration.
To compensate for the loss of forests, Ukrainians have planted 555 million trees over an area of more than 75,000 hectares. With the help of partners, 35,000 sq. km of land have already been cleared of mines.
Additionally, in October, we committed to achieving climate neutrality by 2050 and are actively implementing "green" initiatives. At COP29 alone, more than 50 environmental initiatives from the government, businesses, and civil society have been presented.
The current content of the Ukrainian pavilion at COP29 emphasizes that the main principle of Ukraine's restoration is to build back greener. Together with our partners, we continue to work on mechanisms that will hold aggression and environmental damage strictly accountable in the future. This is the basis of point 8 of President Volodymyr Zelensky's "Peace Formula," which has already united over fifty countries around it. We aim to involve even more partners in this effort to ensure that the crime of ecocide does not happen again. Those who destroy the environment must be held accountable for their actions.