Ecological damage in Mykolaiv region due to full-scale war reached $2.3 billion

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

The amount of ecological damage to the Mykolaiv region since the beginning of the Russian Federation's full-scale invasion of Ukraine has amounted to over $2.3 billion.

This is evidenced by the research data of the visual communications agency Top Lead «Russian-Ukrainian War: Impact on the Environment», which describes the environmental consequences of the war for Ukraine, write NikVesti.

In total, damage to Ukraine's environment during the war amounted to $62.9 billion, with land resources and the atmosphere suffering the most.

The Donetsk (17.7 billion dollars), Luhansk (13.3 billion dollars) and Kharkiv (11.6 billion dollars) regions suffered the greatest losses.

The ecological damage suffered by the Kherson (5.8 billion dollars) and Cherkasy (3.5 billion dollars) regions was somewhat less. Mykolaiv region was among the six regions with the greatest environmental damage.

Damage to the environment of Ukraine by region, screenshot from a study by the visual communications agency Top Lead

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

Climate strategy of Mykolaiv region

As a reminder, experts from the European Union's APENA 3 project are working on climate strategies for three pilot regions of Ukraine: Mykolaiv, Ivano-Frankivsk, and Lviv. These regions were selected as pilot regions even before the full-scale Russian invasion. They are receiving international technical assistance in preparing regional strategies for adapting to climate change. In particular, in August 2021, a working group was created under the Mykolaiv Regional State Administration to develop a regional strategy for adapting to climate change within the framework of the APENA 3 project.

Back in May 2023, they presented interim results on assessing 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 exceed global indicators. It turned out that this trend has been accelerating 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 risks of fires in the steppe and other parts of the region.