Donetsk, Jun 14 — DAN. The Donetsk People’s Republic plans to restore more than 350 hectares of forest under an accord with Russia’s Federal Agency for Forestry (Rosleskhoz), DPR Deputy Prime Minister Vladimir Yozhikov said on Wednesday.

“In 2019, Russia launched the program which commits mining companies to compensate the harm caused to nature, so they implement reforestation projects in the regions of mining, ” Yyozhikov said in a post on Telegram.  “Taking into account the fact that some 20,000 of 196,000 hectares of forest in the DPR were destroyed during hostilities, the federal body met us halfway by allowing Yakutia gold-mining companies to meet these obligations in the DPR instead of the Magadan region.”

Reforestation contracts worth nearly 36 million rubles have already been signed, and DPR specialists are now preparing the soil, he said.

The Donetsk News Agency earlier reported that half of DPR woodlands had been destroyed or mined during hostilities.*jk