Crimea in danger: Russia is destroying the peninsula's unique ecology

In 9 years of occupation, Crimea's ecology has been disastrously negatively affected. Unique flora and fauna are being destroyed right before our eyes," reports the Crimean Platform.

The policy of aggressive militarization has turned protected territories of Crimea into landfills - 153 hectares of unique natural territory have already been destroyed and 110 thousand hectares of forests have been damaged. The occupants decimated 100 thousand trees and 116 thousand shrubs to lay the Tavrida highway, and started extraction of toxic sand.

The reserves are being used for military exercises with live firing. The occupiers are reducing the area of natural reserves and are actively building up the withdrawn areas.

Of the 48 valuable objects of the natural reserve fund of Ukraine of national importance on the Crimean peninsula, 40 have been downgraded to the status of regional importance. This makes them extremely vulnerable to abuse, as it makes industrial and recreational projects possible.

The population suffers from a shortage of fresh water due to its excessive use for military infrastructure development. Aggressive actions by invaders have resulted in the disappearance of water from the horizons and its mineralisation.

The peninsula has become a massive military base with all kinds of weapons, including chemical weapons, which are banned by international conventions.

Illegal resource extraction is gradually causing irreversible damage to the ecosystem - the flora and fauna are dying out. The land is becoming unsuitable for agriculture.

Environmentalists warn that if this continues, Crimea's ecology will suffer irrevocable losses.