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Ukraine Plants New Forests to Revitalize the Chornobyl Exclusion Zone
New forests are being planted in the Chornobyl Exclusion Zone, The State Environmental Inspection of the Capital District in Kyiv reports.
According to the State Environmental Inspection, this year the State Specialized Enterprise “Northern Pushcha” established new forest plantations covering approximately 70 hectares of land to restore the forests of the Chornobyl zone.
“These areas have depleted soil and require special care, as nature is not able to restore these areas on its own,” the state inspection press service noted in a post on its official social media.
“Each planted tree is a contribution to a clean environment and the stability of the ecosystem of Ukraine. The large-scale fires that struck the Chornobyl zone reminded us again of the importance of preserving the forest fund.”
In September, over 2,600 hectares of the Chornobyl zone was affected by forest fires, with the danger of mines making containing it more difficult.
On April 26, 1986, an explosion at the Chornobyl power plant released vast amounts of radioactive material into the atmosphere.
Today, an uninhabitable exclusion zone surrounds the plant, which had operated as a tourist site before Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Russian forces occupied Chornobyl for several weeks during the initial phase of the invasion, withdrawing in March 2022.