National park «Biloberezhzhia Sviatoslava» on Kinburn almost completely burned out

National Park «Biloberezhzhia Sviatoslava». Photo: Nature Reserve Fund of Ukraine

National Park «Biloberezhzhia Sviatoslava», located on the Kinburn Peninsula, suffered devastating consequences due to hostilities — 96% of its land area was destroyed by fire.

This is confirmed by the results of the infographic study «Russian-Ukrainian war: impact on the environment» conducted by the Top Lead agency with the support of the Ministry of Environmental Protection and Natural Resources of Ukraine.

The main factors that led to damage to the ecosystem of the park were large-scale fires, the construction of fortifications, the passage of heavy equipment, the undermining of the Kakhovka HPP dam, and the mining of the territory.

The results of an infographic study of the impact of the war on the «Biloberezhzhia Sviatoslava» National Park by Top Lead and the Ministry of Environment

According to Pavlo Kholodniak, deputy director of the national park, contamination of the territory with explosive objects will become a big problem that will accompany Ukraine for many years.

«Our task is to help nature recover. However, the problem of contamination by explosive objects will remain for many years, and we will not be able to solve it alone,» he emphasizes.

The first steps after the de-occupation of the territory will be demining, restricting access to the park for people's safety, a detailed field survey of the ecosystem, which may last from 3 to 7 years, clearing the territory of fires and creating an ecosystem restoration plan.

What's happening at Kinburn?

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Since the beginning of the full-scale invasion of the Russian Federation into Ukraine, the territory of the Kinburn Spit has been occupied by the Russian military. Actually, from there, the Russians have been shelling Ochakiv and Kutsurub communities of the Mykolaiv region for more than a year.

As of July 2024, there were 253 fires on the Kinburn spit.

Dmytro Pletenchuk, the spokesman of the Ukrainian Navy, said that the Russians have turned the peninsula into a fortified area, from where they are shelling Mykolaiv and part of the Kherson region. But the Russian military receives a response from the Ukrainian army, because of which the peninsula suffers from fires.

Vitalii Kim, the head of Mykolaiv RMA, said that the release of the Kinburn spit is a matter of time, «and not a very long one.» This was also confirmed by the speaker of the Defense Forces of the South, Nataliia Humeniuk.

At the same time, the Russian occupiers continue to shell and mine the protected territory of the Kinburn Peninsula. Almost daily, wild animals are blown up by landmines there, and there are cases of human casualties. This is stated in the article NikVesti «On the verge of destruction: How the protected Kinburn spit suffers from the actions of the occupiers».

During the entire period of occupation, the forests on the Kinburn spit occasionally burned. The situation is usually complicated by the fact that the Russian occupiers did not allow rescuers to put out the fire, so fires can last for weeks. At the same time, as noted in RMA, Mykolaiv region cannot help extinguish fires there, as all fire departments and equipment that can get there are located in the occupied territories of Kherson Oblast.

Due to the fires in Kinburn, red book orchids, other unique plants and animals were under threat, reported the ombudsman Liudmyla Denysova.

After the deoccupation, the Kinburn spit will need time to restore nature on its own, reported in «Biloberezhzhia Sviatoslava». This will take place during the period while demining of the protected area continues.