Environment damage in Ukraine estimated to be about $35 billion

BRUSSELS: Environmental damage in Ukraine due to Russia's invasion was estimated to be around €36 billion US $35.3 billion with millions of hectares of natural reserves under threat, Ukraine's environment minister said on Monday.

One fifth of the protected areas in Ukraine is at risk of destruction and about 2,000 cases of environmental damage have already been recorded, the Environment Minister, Ruslan Strilets, said at a hearing in the EU Parliament in Strasbourg, France.

According to estimates from the Ukrainian government, the bill from air pollution caused by the war in Ukraine is currently about €25 billion and €11.4 billion are needed to address damage to the soil.

Strilets said the seven-month old war alone had caused 31 million tons of CO 2 emissions, about the amount produced by New Zealand annually, according to a new methodology developed by the Ukrainian government to calculate damages.

He said another 79 million tons of greenhouse emissions could be produced for the reconstruction of infrastructure and buildings destroyed during the war.