The ecological situation in Donbas is dire and a critical situation has developed with coal mines located in temporarily occupied areas in Donetsk and Luhansk regions, Ukraine's representative to the humanitarian subgroup of the Minsk Trilateral Contact Group (TCG) and Deputy Speaker of Ukraine's Verkhonva Rada Iryna Gerashchenko has said.

"Seven [of the mines] are completely destroyed and cannot be repaired. There are 115 mines located in the occupied areas. Equipment has been stolen from several of them. Others have been flooded, requiring water to be pumped out to prevent ground water and rivers from being polluted," Gerashchenko said on her Facebook page on Sunday, June 25.

She said experts from Germany are willing to help, but representatives of the self-proclaimed republics refuse to grant them access to the mines.

According to Gerashchenko, the most critical situation involves the Donetsk water filtration plant, to which repair workers refuse to go to make repairs because of unremitting shelling, as well as the Avdiyivka Coke Plant, where water systems must be repaired. They are located in Yasynuvata District under control of Russian occupation forces, she said.

"An environmental disaster could happen at the Incor enterprise's overflowing reservoirs. At least five days of ceasefire would be required to conduct the necessary repairs," Gerashchenko said.

A TCG representative said ecological problems take precedence now after security and humanitarian concerns.

"It's very important pay special attention to this. Otherwise there could be a disaster that would impact on the war-torn region and beyond," Gerashchenko said.