We need to do our “homework” to prove at the international level that russia must compensate for the damages it caused to the environment – Andrii Demydenko

Ukraine needs to do its “homework” in accordance with the regulatory framework to prove at the international level and receive compensation for the environmental damage caused by the war unleashed by russia in the future.

Andrii Demydenko, member of the Working Group under the Operational Headquarters of the State Environmental Inspectorate of Ukraine, made this statement during a roundtable discussion at Media Center Ukraine – Ukrinform on compensation for environmental damage caused by russia.

“How can we ask someone for compensation for environmental responsibility, if we do not have environmental responsibility even in theory. We have criminal responsibility, but environmental material responsibility is not envisaged at all. How can we talk about being helped when we don’t have a definition of what environmental damage is? The vast majority of institutions, organizations, and the Constitution believe that environmental damage is damage to people from the environment. And the whole world believes that environmental damage is damage to the environment from people. Can you imagine the chasm?” he remarked.

Andrii Demydenko is convinced that at this point it is necessary to focus work on changes to the legislation, which would provide for not only criminal, but also material responsibility for the damages caused to the environment. In addition, it is necessary to work on changes to the wording in the Constitution that relate to this issue.

In turn, Dmytro Zaruba, First Deputy Head of the State Environmental Inspectorate of Ukraine, representative of the Prosecutor’s General Office, noted that work is currently underway to put all the damages caused by russia in a single lawsuit.

“We talked a lot with various experts and they all say that it will most likely be a single lawsuit. That is, there will not be a million lawsuits, there will be only one, which in addition to issues related to the environment will include those related to infrastructure, health, etc. This is a big process, which is currently being worked out by Ukrainian and international lawyers.”

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