Environmentalists demand ban on state registration of zinc phosphide in Ukraine

Environmentalists have called for banning the use and state registration of zinc phosphide in Ukraine.

"The Environment Ministry is the main opponent of the protection of animals who die as a result of the use of zinc phosphide in the fields," Director of Kyiv Ecological and Cultural Center Volodymyr Boreiko said at a press conference at Interfax-Ukraine on Wednesday.

"Why are environment ministers in Ukraine only interested in shale gas and nothing else? Why are the officials of the department of the so-called environmental safety lobbying their own interests and lobbying zinc phosphide?" he said.

Boreiko explained that zinc phosphide is a pesticide that is used to poison rodents, and it remains toxic for years. Almost all countries in Europe gave up using this chemical, it is not permitted in Poland, Belarus, Russia, Moldova.

However, the ecologist said that this chemical, which is imported from China and India, is widely applied in Ukraine. According to him, last year the Ukrainian Customs banned the import of zinc phosphide, but it is still being imported to Ukraine in large quantity and is continued to be used.

"However, the Environment Ministry, which officially gets the money for the registration of more and more new pesticides, is naturally totally against it," Boreiko said.
Representative of the Ekopravo-Kyiv organization Halyna Levina said that on June 12 the District Administrative Court of Kyiv decided to remove zinc phosphide from the state registration, but environmentalists fear that this decision will not be fulfilled.

According to Levina, the judgment has not yet entered into force.

"If the Ecology Ministry appeals against it, the trial will continue further. So far, we have no information that the Ecology Ministry has filed an appeal, but we know from our own experience, and we have more than 30 lawsuits, this agency, as a rule, appeal against any court ruling. We assume that there will be judicial appeal, and the trial will not end here," Levina said.

According to the head of the environmental department of the Ukrainian Society for Birds Protection Olha Yaremchenko, thousands of birds, including the endangered species, die annually from zinc poisoning.

"Birds are dying almost every year in fall, winter and spring during migration," he said.