In the Moscow region, a child stepped on a hogweed and was hospitalized with an eye burn.

In the Dmitrov district of the Moscow region, an eight-year-old schoolgirl stepped on a hogweed thrown under her feet and was hospitalized with a burned eye. This was reported on June 4 by a source of Izvestia.

On the evening of June 2, the girl was running around the site with a freshly mown hogweed and stepped on the remains of plants.

"The hogweed juice sprayed the schoolgirl in the eye," the source said.

The girl was hospitalized, she is in a moderate condition.

Dangerous weed is illegal: the land plot will no longer be taken away because of the hogweed

Hogweed is no longer considered a sign of land abandonment

Olesya Slezkina, a lawyer at the Moscow City Bar Association, a member of the Sinelshchikov and Partners Bar Association, said on March 30 that control over the presence of hogweed on land plots can be carried out at the request of citizens, as part of routine inspections, as well as using unmanned monitoring systems. According to the expert, during the inspections, employees of the Rosselkhoznadzor, Rosreestr or municipal authorities inspect the territory, record violations and issue the results in the form of an act.

In July last year, Russian President Vladimir Putin approved a law that obliges land owners to combat Sosnovsky hogweed and other invasive (alien) plants. The new obligations entered into force on March 1, 2026.