UKRAINE, KHARKIV, Mar 15 — The consequences of the Russian shelling of an oil depot in Kharkiv on February 9, 2024, caused over $4 million in environmental damages, announced the head of the Kharkiv Regional Prosecutor’s Office, Oleksandr Filchakov.

He noted that at the time of the attack, there were about 3,800 tons of oil products in the reservoirs of the oil depot. After the Russian attack, large volumes of fuel leaked out. The oil products contaminated the soil and flowed into the Nemyshlia, Kharkiv, Lopan, and Udy rivers.

According to the State Environmental Inspection, the Russian shelling of an oil depot in Kharkiv on February 9, 2024, caused over $4 million in environmental damages. In particular, land damage amounts to $3.9 million and air damage to $69 thousand.

“In total, over the two years of the full-scale war, the Russian Federation’s military has caused more than $8 billion worth of damage to the environment of the Kharkiv region,” Filchakov said.

He said that for the first time in the history of Ukraine, prosecutors served a notice of suspicion of wartime ecocide on a Russian general and four of his subordinates for the shelling of the Neutron Source Research facility in Kharkiv in 2022.

What is known about the shelling of Kharkiv on February 9

On February 9, at about 10:46 p.m., the Russian army shelled an oil depot in the Nemyshlianskyi district of Kharkiv with Shahed kamikaze drones. The fire burned down 15 private houses to the ground.

Seven people died. Rescuers found the charred bodies of a family in a private house: a husband, wife, and their three children: boys aged ten months, four years, and seven years. 

A 66-year-old man and his 65-year-old wife died in another house. There is information that the Russian army launched at least ten unmanned aerial vehicles [for this attack] from the territory of the Belgorod Oblast of Russia. 

The police started criminal proceedings: the investigation will establish whether the oil depot is legally located near residential buildings, what the maximum amount of fuel could legally be there, and who the owner is.

Read more

  •  In Kupiansk, a 43-year-old man was injured by a Russian mine explosion in his garden. The man died on the way to the hospital. In the village of Slobozhanske, Kharkiv district, the Russian shelling wounded a 50-year-old woman and destroyed her house.