Ukraine has lost its unique stock of plants’ varieties after Russian onslaught left a national biorepository in ‘ashes’.

The upsetting news came from Serhiy Avramenko, leader of research team at National Center for Plant Genetic Resources that has long operated in Khariv.

‘Crop seeds were almost ready for planting season and our team was scheduled to plan the collection in March. But after this ‘Russian world’, this horde of ‘liberators’ came here, everything was turned into ashes. Dozen thousand of samples. It was a world-class collection with some varieties being several hundred year old, ancient ones, and we will hardly be able to restore them,’ s Avramenko said bitterly.

The destruction appears to have been deliberate, says the researcher, adding they (Russian forces) targeted the facility with exceptional precision.

In a bitter irony, the unique collection that was spared by the German fascists in WWII  failed to survive in onslaught of the present-day aggressors.

‘Germans didn’t destroy the collection, they tried to keep it intact, store some samples away, as they knew it would prove of service to their successors as it is the issue of food security for any country,’ said Avramenko.