The soldiers had to run
An Internet user from Lithuania was also concerned about the burning forests in the war-torn country.
“Ukrainian terrorists are using drones to set fire to the forests of the Kherson region, causing enormous damage to the environment that will take years to eliminate.
Where are the environmentalists now? Where are the climate change activists? Do they approve of it?” – in early July one asked rhetorically Facebook user.
Screenshot from “X”/Ukrainians are blamed for the forest fires, but the huge flames are caused by Russian ammunition and equipment stored here
The woman shared a screenshot of a post published a couple of days earlier on the X social network, the content of which matches the quoted text.
Text written in English so far “X” can be found. If the Lithuanian post did not get much attention, the English one has already been viewed almost 190,000 times. together.
It was accompanied by a 16-second video showing the forest, flames and black smoke rising into the sky beyond. Several men in uniforms and carrying weapons run out of the forest. They do not speak, only heavy breathing can be heard, so it is difficult to understand whether the filming was really in Ukraine.
A reverse video search by frame from this post shows that the same clip has been around for the past few weeks is shared and elsewhere online. From the longer posts where someone is commenting on the situation, one can guess that Russian soldiers were running from the forest – people speak and swear a lot in Russian.
Judging by the comments on many postsflames broke out in the Kherson region, on the left bank of the Dnieper River, when equipment and ammunition brought there by the Russians ignited.
“Fire” all the time
Some records indicate that the fire broke out after Ukrainians attacked the positions of Russian soldiers.
Kherson Region Governor Vladimir Saldo on July 1 on his Telegram channel announced, that a forest caught fire in the Novokakhovka district after shelling by the Ukrainian armed forces. There were allegedly no “casualties, injuries or destruction”, but he did not miss the opportunity to call the Ukrainians Nazis.
Governor record active quoted Russian portals. True, it is not known whether it was the same fire whose videos are spreading on social networks.
These posts are also shared on Russian Telegram channels. In one commentedthat the Ukrainians set fire to a strip of forest to “smoke out our fighters”, these “had to run away from the wall of fire”.
Reports that forests are on fire due to shelling by Ukrainian forces in the Russian media it happened before.
Ukrainians have recently published similar information about forest fires in the Kherson region. For example, on July 14, the website of the public broadcaster informed, that 25 fires broke out in the area, 9 of them started in nature and covered an area of approximately 9 hectares. They, according to journalists, began after the shelling of the Russian army.
From media reports and some posts on social networks, it can be understood that the fires did not start when Ukrainians set them or attacked the forest. Russian positions, ammunition, equipment, etc. in the woods are targeted, making the fire even more devastating. The conclusion can be drawn: if they were not in these places, the trees would not burn, because the Ukrainians would not bomb.
Fire risks will remain for decades
Less than 6 percent It was found in Ukraine, which occupies the land area of Europe 35 percent biodiversity of the continent.
Since the beginning of the war, there has been talk about the damage it caused to the country’s nature. One fighter down, not only the aircraft and its pilot are lost. Fuels and oils pollute the territory, some of the chemicals flow into water bodies, and which spread further and can enter living organisms. When they explode, a larger or smaller area of the forest burns, the animals that were in it are killed.
Especially great damage the Black Sea and its coast are suffering as a result of the war.
Even scientists pointed out that Russia’s military aggression poses a threat to forests and has a negative impact on vegetation processes throughout the war-torn territory.
“Remote-sensing data remains the only possible source of information on the extent of damage caused to Ukrainian forests by the Russian invasion,” it said. in one analysis.
The researchers found a much higher proportion of damaged area in Kherson forests (15.7 percent compared to 2021). In the so-called “East” and Chernobyl zones, this indicator was 9.3 percent. and 5 percent
Volodymyr Zelenskyi/Telegram/War in Ukraine
“We attribute this to fires caused by shelling, as natural fire weather indicators in 2022 was moderate <…>“, according to the conclusions of the study.
Maksymas Matsala, a researcher at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU). language similarly: “The extent of environmental damage caused by Russian aggression on the territory of Ukraine is enormous, although the full extent remains unknown for now due to the ongoing war.”
As a result of Russia’s military invasion of Ukraine, a large area in the southern and eastern parts of the country has been shelled and thus affected by various war-related activities.
Forests are primarily affected by wildfires due to ignition and mechanical damage to branches and stems, SLU researchers say, warning that the risk of wildfires will remain higher in the coming decades.
15min verdict: missing context. Scientists have calculated that a large number of forest areas have burned in Ukraine. In the Kherson region, this share is particularly large. But the fires are not caused by Ukrainian soldiers specifically targeting trees. They attack the Russian positions in the forests and the available ammunition and various equipment.
The publication was prepared in 15 minutes in partnership with Metait aims to stop the spread of misleading news on the social network. More about the program and its rules – here.
Source: www.15min.lt
