The photo exhibition "Stop Ecocide Ukraine" was launched in the building of the Ministry of Environment and Water (MOEW) on 22 Princess Maria Louisa blvd. The event was organized by the Embassy of Ukraine in Bulgaria with the support of the Ministry of Environment and Water and the assistance of the All-Ukrainian Animal Protection Organization UAnimals.

The exhibition is part of the StopEcocideUkraine information campaign initiated by UAnimals, an organization that rescues animals in war zones. The campaign is supported by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine and aims to draw the attention of the global community to the devastating consequences of the Russian ecocide carried out on June 6, 2023, when Russia blew up the Kakhovka hydroelectric power plant and flooded part of the Kherson Oblast.

"This was a deliberate and planned crime," Her Excellency the Ambassador of Ukraine to the Republic of Bulgaria Ms Olesya Ilashchuk said at the launch, reminding that the exact number of the tens of thousands who died could not yet be ascertained and hundreds of thousands were left without drinking water as the Kakhovka dam provided power for the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, the largest in Europe.

"Today, two days before the summit in Switzerland, it is very important that together we do everything possible and impossible to prevent further similar disasters for people, critical infrastructure, and the environment," urged Ms Olesya Ilashchuk, thanking the Bulgarian government for its support to achieve a just and sustainable peace.

The exhibition is realized within the framework of Bulgaria's co-chairmanship of Working Group No. 8 "Environmental Security" of President Volodymyr Zelensky's Peace Formula.

"Bulgaria remains committed to the implementation of Ukraine's Peace Formula and within the framework of Working Group No. 8 we will continue our efforts to engage the international community in the green recovery of the country," said Minister Petar Dimitrov. He noted that during his participation in the "Uniting for Justice" conference in October in Kiev, he acquired first-hand knowledge of the suffering of the Ukrainian people, and recalled that since the beginning of the war, the MOEW has been carrying out enhanced monitoring of the cleanliness of the waters of the Black Sea and has been in continuous data exchange with Romania and Ukraine.

The exhibition features 26 photographs by the most famous Ukrainian photographers, including Kostyantyn and Vlada Liberov, Anastasia Meteleva, Andriy Yakimenko, Kateryna Klochko, Yuriy Stefanyak.

The photos show the devastating traces of the Russian army's crime - the destruction of the Kakhovka hydroelectric power plant and the catastrophic consequences for the region's population, environment, infrastructure, water supply, agriculture and the entire energy sector of Ukraine.