The governor of Ukraine’s Mykolaiv region, Vitali Kim, said on Thursday that local authorities have decided to close all beaches to the public due to the risk of mines.
“Sea beaches will be closed due to intensive mining and the danger it poses to people,” said Kim, who clarified, however, that river and estuary beaches will be open to the public if there are no safety concerns.
The governor of Mykolaiv added that demining work on Ukraine’s beaches could take up to 70 years, because it is currently not possible to estimate which area has been affected.
“It is very difficult to estimate the damage that the Russians have done in the Black Sea. We cannot know for sure what they put there,” Kim concluded, referring to the fallout from the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February started last year.
The military offensive launched by Russia in Ukraine on February 24, 2022 has so far led to the flight of more than 14.6 million people – 6.5 million internally displaced persons and more than 8.1 million to European countries – according to the latest data from the UN, which classifies this refugee crisis as the worst in Europe since World War II (1939-1945).
At the moment, at least 18 million Ukrainians need humanitarian aid and 9.3 million people need food aid and shelter.
The Russian invasion – justified by the Russian President, Vladimir Putin, with the need to “denazify” and demilitarize Ukraine for Russian security – was condemned by the international community at large, which responded by sending weapons to Ukraine and Russia political and economic sanctions.
The UN presented 8,534 civilian casualties and 14,370 wounded as confirmed since the start of the war, underlining that these numbers are far below the actual ones.
Source: DN
