'Left in ashes', Ukrainian scientist bemoans loss of Kharkiv gene bank destroyed by Russian troops

18.05.2022, 11:14 bykvu.com

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.