The shelling by Russian aggressors of the buildings of the National Science Centre Kharkiv Institute of Physics and Technology in 2022 was aimed at causing harm to a nuclear facility and was qualified as ecocide.

This was announced by the head of the department for combating crimes committed in armed conflict, the Prosecutor General's Office, Yuriy Belousov, during a public discussion "Specialized Environmental Prosecutor's Office is 3 years old" at Interfax-Ukraine on Tuesday.

"It was this year that employees of the specialized environmental prosecutor, in collaboration with the department, first notified high officials of the Russian army about the commission of the crime of ecocide," Belousov said.

According to him, the crime was that it was these individuals who gave direct orders to carry out attacks on the National Science Centre Kharkiv Institute of Physics and Technology, on the territory of which the world's only nuclear subcritical installation "Neutron Source" is located, as well as a nuclear material storage facility.

"It was these individuals who, through their actions, led to the fact that in 2022, some 74 strikes were carried out on this nuclear facility with completely different types of weapons," the head of the department said.

According to him, in particular, the strikes were carried out by aerial bombs, high-explosive fragmentation artillery shells, high-explosive fragmentation and cluster shells from the Grad, Uragan, Smerch and Pion multiple launch rocket systems.

"This suggests that these actions were very coordinated and aimed specifically at causing harm to a nuclear facility," Belousov said.

As part of the investigation into the case, according to the conclusions of the examinations, the damage caused to the natural environment as a result of Russian shelling is estimated at UAH 15 billion. In addition, the cost of restoration work at the institute is more than UAH 30 million.

As reported, in the period from February 24 to July 22, 2022, the territory of the Kharkiv Institute of Physics and Technology in particular, the Neutron Source, as well as the nuclear materials storage facility were subject to constant shelling from the Russian occupation forces. Investigators and prosecutors identified 74 hits from various types of weapons.