Ground in militant-held Donetsk has gone 20-25 cm down because water is not being pumped out of local mines, the Ukrainian Ministry for Temporarily Occupied Territories has said.
"The territory of Donetsk: here we are observing the sinking of soil by 20-25 cm, we can see this by means of satellite monitoring. And this means that the surface of the city of Donetsk is going down in fact," Minister for Temporarily Occupied Territories Vadym Chernysh said at the presentation of the report, "Environmental situation in Donetsk and Luhansk regions", according to Ukrinform.
According to experts, the ground is going down because water is not being pumped out of local mines.
"In our opinion, this may carry a risk to residential quarters and social infrastructure as such, it is not only about industrial infrastructure," Chernysh said.
In the spring, the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic decided to flood the Yunkom mine near Donetsk. As a result, drinking water may be polluted with radiation from the mine.