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Ukraine is investigating the dam blast, which unleashed floods
across southern Ukraine and Russian-occupied areas of the
Kherson region, as a war crime and possible criminal
environmental destruction, or "ecocide". It has estimated the
cost of the dam's collapse at 1.2 billion euros.
Kyiv and Russia have blamed each other for the dam's
destruction.
"I do not think that the world reaction to this ecocide was
enough," said Thunberg, who was in Kyiv for the inaugural
meeting of a new environmental group that also includes senior
European political figures.
"We have to talk louder about it, we have to raise awareness
about what is going on," she said, according to a Ukrainian
translation of her comments.
The group is tasked with assessing the damage to Ukraine's
environment and developing mechanisms to hold Russia
accountable, said Andriy Yermak, head of the Ukrainian
presidential staff and co-chair of the group along with former
Swedish deputy prime minister Margot Wallstrom.
The environment risks becoming the "silent victim of war" with
about 30% of Ukraine's territory contaminated with explosive
objects and over 2.4 million hectares of forests damaged,
Ukraine's prosecutor general Andriy Kostin said in a Twitter
post to mark the meeting.
"We call for strengthening international efforts to investigate
and prosecute Russia's war crimes against the environment and to
ensure that the aggressor pays," he said.
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy attended the meeting and thanked
members of the group for their visit as an "extremely important
signal of support."
(Reporting by Anna Pruchnicka)
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