Russians destroy protected area on Dzharylhach Island

A fire on the island of Dzharylhach in the south of Ukraine destroyed the entire protected natural park area. It is about 1,500 hectares of land, said Iryna Sabashenko, Head of the Dzharylhatskyi National Nature Park.

The Russians, who occupied the island, do not extinguish the flames. The fire has already destroyed the protected zone, where the main part of all steppe ecosystems of the island and the population of rare animals are concentrated. The largest number of ungulates on the island is also concentrated in this area.

“Existing plant groups that are now endangered, listed in the Green Book of Ukraine, are rare and endangered plants. This is a grouping of cladium mariscus, stipa borysthenica, stipa capillata, Bessarabian cloves, chrysopogon gryllus and others,” Sabashenko said.

It takes an average of 4–5 to 8–12 years to restore the steppe, meadow, and salt marsh areas, the head of the national park says. Tamarix needs around 15 to 30 years to restore.

“We calculate the losses, but they have already reached billions of hryvnias. The fire is still ongoing, so we do not have accurate data,” Sabashenko concluded.

The protected zone on Dzharylhach received the protection status as a reserve back in 1974, 35 years before the national park’s creation. The island has been under Russian occupation since the first days of the full-scale invasion. The Russians are destroying the territory, in particular, shooting representatives of the fauna.