Ukraine has become the first country in the world to investigate Russia's war crimes against the environment on a global scale and is working to bring those responsible to justice, Deputy Prosecutor General Viktoria Litvinova emphasizes.

"The challenges of the time determine the emergence of a new direction of our work. It concerns the investigation of criminal offenses that caused harm to the environment as a result of armed aggression of the Russian Federation," the Deputy Prosecutor General said on Tuesday at a press conference at Interfax-Ukraine.

Litvinova focused on the fact that "not a single country in the world has yet investigated war crimes against the environment on such a scale."

"Our task is to identify and properly investigate facts that have signs of war crimes, as a result of which nature suffered. And also to work to ensure that Russian war criminals are held accountable for every war crime committed that harms the environment," the Deputy Prosecutor General noted.

She added that despite the short period of work of environmental prosecutors' offices - since April 23, 2021 - since the beginning of the full-scale aggression of the Russian Federation, prosecutors have gained unique experience in investigating war crimes against nature.

In general, according to her, over the three years of work of specialized environmental prosecutors, materials on more than 6,000 criminal proceedings related to crimes against the environment were sent to the court, for which claims for damages in the amount of UAH 13.8 billion were filed.

During 2022-2023 alone, as Litvinova noted, illegal use was prevented and almost 44,000 hectares of environmental lands were returned to the state, including 35,000 hectares of protected lands.

Earlier, Prosecutor General Andriy Kostin stated that Ukraine is the first country in history to investigate occupiers' crimes against the environment as military ones.