Students and faculty members of the Sloviansk Vocational College of Transport Infrastructure have launched a wide-ranging dialogue on the future of the Donetsk region.
As part of the “Resilience” lessons initiated by the Department of Education and Science of the Regional State Administration, an environmental information and dialogue forum titled “Living Heritage” was held. The online event brought together the college’s student community and high school students from Sloviansk Secondary School No. 12 and Pokrovsk Gymnasium No. 3.
During the forum, participants conducted a detailed analysis of the state of the region’s ecosystem, which is currently suffering from the consequences of hostilities. Particular attention was paid to the fate of the “wounded” natural symbols: the Holy Mountains, the Liman and Siverskyi forests, as well as the protected steppes. Young experts discussed the critical pollution of the Siverskyi Donets River and the Slovyansk Lakes, as well as the disappearance of the region’s rare inhabitants—from Red Book-listed ground squirrels to birds of prey.
In addition to the obvious consequences of the war, the forum raised the issue of a new environmental threat: the “fiber-optic web” from drones cluttering the landscape, and the risks of microplastics threatening Ukraine’s unique black soil.
The future recovery of the Donetsk region is impossible without innovation. Forum participants presented the potential for using drones, satellites, and artificial intelligence as key tools for environmental reconnaissance and security.
The event concluded with an interactive session titled “Native Coordinates.” The forum chat instantly filled with participants’ fond memories of the forests of Lyman, the Svyatogorsk Lavra, and the salt lakes of Sloviansk.