The war launched by russia against Ukraine endangers the safety of thousands of people every day. In addition, military operations and their consequences are an unprecedented case of damage to the Ukrainian environment.

Destroyed and mined forests are the results of the military ecocide impact in the forestry sector.

Since the beginning of the russian-Ukrainian full-scale war in the area of fighting and in the de-occupied territories, pyrotechnics neutralize hundreds of ammunition per day.

Heavy military equipment is moved through the forests in the occupied and de-occupied territories, military units are located in the forests and active military operations are conducted. It leads to serious violations of forest ecosystems, soil and water pollution, which will have a negative effects on the environment in the long term, and war-damaged lands will require significant efforts to restore and further use them in the future. More than 40% of wood fires in the forests of the State Forest Resources Agency of Ukraine are caused by russian attacks. Fires in forests contaminated with remnants of explosive objects are especially dangerous.

The total area of forests affected by the war is approximately 3 million hectares, which is almost 30% of all forests in Ukraine!

The situation regarding the contamination of forests with explosive objects on the temporarily occupied lands of the wood fund, approximately on the area of 1 million hectares, remains unknown.

A significant part of the forest returned to the control of Ukraine remains unusable. About 0.5 million hectares of forests of the State Forestry Agency of Ukraine require demining. The demining process can last for decades.

Estimated damage to forestry is UAH 20 billion. A full assessment of forest losses in the de-occupied territories is impossible due to the contamination of forests with explosive objects and potential risks to the lives of workers. It's difficult to make the final verification until demining is carried out.

russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine has caused large-scale consequences for the environment not only for our country, but also for the whole world. There are no boundaries regarding these consequences. Since February 24, 2022, more than 150 million tons of CO2 emissions have been released into the atmosphere – they were provoked by fires and military actions. Almost 3.6 thousand cases of environmental damage have already been recorded in Ukraine. It is estimated at UAH 2.2 trillion.