«The impact of the fires is very powerful,» the national park worker told what is happening to the animals in the occupied Kinburn

Wild horses at Kinbourn

Yevhen Kasyanov, a researcher at the «Biloberezhzhia Sviatoslav» National Nature Park, reported that the situation on the temporarily occupied Kinburn spit is not «completely catastrophic», but the animals were harmed by landmines and fires.

This is stated in the fifth episode of the podcast series «It hurts: war and ecocide», writes NikVesti.

«I cannot answer whether the entire Kinburn spit is mined or determine a specific location. But even last year there were many reports that the spit was mined. There were reports that, unfortunately, civilians were killed by landmines there. Livestock and local herds of wild horses are also very often hit by landmines. That is, there is such data. The territory, of course, is mined. In some places, this mining can be very dense, but accurate data and figures can already be provided by experts in pyrotechnic work, and this is already possible only after de-occupation,» said Yevhen Kasianov.

Areas of Kinburn affected by fire

He also explained that the fires are destroying the natural forage base for animals on Kinburn, putting their existence in general at risk.

«I can't say that the situation with local animals is completely catastrophic, but the impact is really very powerful — precisely due to the fires and their scale. In addition to the effect of fire, the destruction of the natural fodder base has a great impact. The animal may actually escape from the affected area, but the question arises as to whether it will be able to feed itself,» Yevhen Kasianov added.

It was previously reported that after the deoccupation, the Kinburn spit will need time to restore nature on its own. This will take place during the period while demining of the protected area continues.

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It is worth noting that 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.

During the entire period of occupation, 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 Oblast cannot help extinguish fires there, as all fire departments and equipment that can get there are located in the occupied territories of Kherson Oblast.

The red book orchids, other unique plants and animals were under threat because of the fires in Kinburn, reported the ombudsman Liudmyla Denisova.

Read also the article by NikVesti «On the verge of destruction: How the protected Kinburn spit suffers from the actions of the occupiers».