UN has no definition for 'ecocide' – UNEP Executive Director.

The United Nations does not use the definition for "ecocide" the UN has no definition for it, Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations and Executive Director of the UN Environment Programme Inger Andersen has said.

"This word is not a word that the UN has a definition for. It does not exist in our vocabulary, but obviously, everybody can understand that it is a heavy word," Andersen said in an exclusive interview with Interfax-Ukraine.

She said the environment is never in a good situation after the guns irrespective of where and how.

"However, what I can say is that we understand that war has very negative impacts on the environment. The only thing that can stop that negative impact is peace," Andersen said.

Earlier, Head of the President's Office of Ukraine Andriy Yermak met with UNEP Executive Director Andersen in Kyiv. At the meeting, he said Russia should be punished for the crimes of ecocide.

President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy has repeatedly called on the world to counteract ecocide. In particular, at the G20 summit, he announced the colossal scale of ecocide in Ukraine caused by the Russian invasion. He also called on New Zealand to start consolidating the world, in particular the UN, and at the bilateral level with other states for the eighth point of the formula to counter ecocide.

Deputy Prosecutor General Viktoria Litvinova said environmental prosecutors were involved in the investigation of 104 war crimes that caused harm to the environment, some 11 of them were initiated on the fact of ecocide.

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