Almost 25% of Ukraine’s territory, both water and land, is contaminated with explosives, and total damage to Ukraine’s ecology from war has already amounted to EUR 138 billion, Minister of Economy, Environment and Agriculture Oleksiy Sobolev noted at Ukraine Recovery Conference (URC 2026) on Friday.
"Large pieces of Ukrainian territory have been contaminated, and some ecosystems and elements of nature have been lost irretrievably," minister said.
Also, according to him, hundreds of thousands of people have lost access to safe drinking water.
He proposed that international community "develop joint tools for environmental protection. After all, environment is not limited to borders of single state."
Also, as candidate for EU membership, Ukraine needs to reformulate environmental and climate policy.
Sobolev said Ukraine "will require large investments: from waste recycling systems to monitoring industrial modernization, as well as biodiversity protection and climate change mitigation."
