The RMA reported that the amount of damage to the ecology of the Mykolaiv Oblast due to the war reached ₴90 billion, but «these data are increasing every day»

Fire in a field in the Mykolaiv region, summer 2024, photo: Main Department of the State Emergency Service of Ukraine in the Mykolaiv region

The amount of damage to the ecology of the Mykolaiv region since the beginning of the full-scale invasion of the Russian Federation into Ukraine amounted to more than 90 billion hryvnias.

Maryna Romanenko, the chief specialist of the ecology department of the Mykolayiv RMA, reported this during a briefing on September 17, NikVesti correspondent reports.

«The amount of damages is determined by various components. In total, there are 7 methods, which are calculated for water, land resources, nature reserve fund. There is no final number, because these are floating indicators. But if we take the year 2023, it is approximately 90 billion hryvnias. But these data are increasing every day,» said Maryna Romanenko.

Currently, she added, the RMA working commission is working to determine the damage caused to the nature of the Kinburn Peninsula.

«We are working on determining the damage caused by military actions to the environment of the Mykolaiv region. A number of meetings have been held, and there is a working commission working to determine the damage caused on the territory of the Kinburn Peninsula. These protected objects are: Biloberezhzhia Sviatoslava National Park, Kinburn Spit National Landscape Park and areas of the Black Sea Biosphere Reserve. The issue is complex and requires a comprehensive solution, as hostilities continue, shelling continues, but this must be fixed. Thanks to the data of remote monitoring, scientists of the national park fix the dates of the fires, the areas are calculated. And this is quite such a powerful base for further calculation of damage, for example, for emissions into the atmosphere,» said Maryna Romanenko.

Read also NikVesti article «Collateral Victim: How the War Destroys the Ecology of the South and What to Do About It».

Climate strategy of the Mykolayiv region

We will remind you that the experts of the European Union project APENA 3 are working on climate strategies of three pilot regions of Ukraine: Mykolaiv, Ivano-Frankivsk and Lviv. These regions were chosen as pilot areas even before a full-scale Russian invasion. They are provided with international technical assistance for the preparation of regional strategies for adaptation to climate change. In particular, in August 2021, a working group was created at the Mykolaiv Regional State Administration to develop a regional adaptation strategy to climate change as part of the APENA 3 project.

Back in May 2023, they presented interim results from the assessment of the vulnerability of economic sectors to climate change using the example of the Mykolaiv region. At that time, it was said that changes in average annual temperatures in the region exceeded global indicators. This trend appears to have accelerated over the past 30 years, with more frequent and intense thunderstorms, downpours and squalls. At the same time, they added, Russian aggression has further increased the risk of fires in the steppe and other parts of the region.