Minister: Russia's war has caused damage worth $35 billion to environment.

Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov said on Jan. 2 that Russia's all-out invasion of Ukraine had caused damage worth $35.3 billion to the country's environment.

The minister added that millions of hectares of nature preserves are under threat.

"Article 55 of Protocol I (of the 1949 Geneva Conventions) prohibits waging war against the natural environment by way of reprisals, but Russia doesn't care," Reznikov wrote on Twitter.

In early December, Ukraine's State Environmental Inspectorate reported that, due to Russia's war in Ukraine, over 291 million square meters of land in the country had been polluted, and over 8 billion square meters had been littered.

The watchdog estimated damage to land resources at over $12 billion.