Zelenskyy, Thunberg call for action on Russian ‘ecocide’ in Ukraine
Kyiv, June 9 (EFE).- Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy spoke with Swedish environmental activist Greta Thunberg and other climate experts to assess the consequences of a dam burst after an alleged explosion by Russia in occupied southern Ukraine.
Ukrainian presidential chief of staff Andriy Yermak said Thunberg expressed her sympathies with the Ukrainians in the face of an environmental disaster due to the destruction of the Kakhovka dam and its hydroelectric power station.
Thunberg said she was “prepared to put pressure on the relevant international organizations” to give a forceful response to the disaster.
The young activist hoped “to receive recommendations on how exactly she can help.”
Former Swedish Foreign Minister Margot Wallström and former Irish President Mary Robinson attended the virtual meeting with Zelenskyy.
A video released by the Ukrainian presidential office shows a part of the conversation.
Zelenskyy announced a high-level international working group “on environmental crimes of Russia” after the “man-made disaster” in the parts of the Russian-controlled region of Kherson province.
He said the Group would consolidate the global efforts “to bring Russia to responsibility for ecocide in Ukraine.”
Ukraine blames Moscow for deliberately blowing up the dam and the hydroelectric power station to stop a possible advance of Ukrainian forces into the territories occupied by Russia.
The dam burst has caused widespread floods, forcing thousands of people on either side of the Dnieper River, which cuts through the Ukrainian and Russia-controlled territories.
According to Russian estimates, the collapse of the strategic dam in occupied southern Ukraine claimed at least five lives.
The river, which has become one of the major fronts of the Russia-Ukraine conflict, cuts the Kherson province, dividing it into the regions controlled by the neighbors at war with each other. EFE
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