Ukraine records over 265 Russian war crimes against environment, 14 cases of ecocide

This was reported by the Prosecutor General's Office.

Ukrainian prosecutors showed in dynamics how the armed aggression of the Russian Federation leads to serious and large-scale damage to the environment, destroying forests, marine ecosystems, polluting rivers and soil, resulting in the death of flora and fauna.

Borys Indychenko, head of the Specialized Environmental Prosecutor's Office, noted that prosecutors have already recorded more than 265 war crimes against the environment and 14 cases of ecocide. The largest one was the June 23 deliberate destruction of the Kakhovka hydroelectric dam, which caused the flooding of 80 settlements over an area of about 610 km², the death of 33 people, and a devastating impact on Ukraine's environment.

Experts and civil society organizations are involved in the investigation and assessment of the consequences of these crimes. In particular, the Prosecutor General's Office has formed an international team of 10 lawyers and 3 technical experts who are advising prosecutors and investigators on a regular basis.

"Using the examples of these recorded crimes, we have shown our European counterparts how Russian aggression is destroying the environment. In terms of severity, duration, and scale, they are perhaps the largest environmental crime on the European continent. The environment has no citizenship and no borders, so documenting environmental damage and bringing the perpetrators to justice should be our common task," emphasized Maksym Popov, Advisor to the Prosecutor General.

• The occupation administration of the temporarily seized Zaporizhzhia region proposed to use the waters of the Molochna River to solve the issue of water supply and irrigation of agricultural land, which creates preconditions for a new environmental disaster.