Briefing on the environmental damage caused by the russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine (January 27 - February 9, 2024)

On 31 January, the International Environmental Forum "United for Nature. Agenda for Ukraine" took place.

The common goal of Ukraine and its partners is to make the aggressor pay for all its crimes, including crimes against the environment.

Paragraph 8 of President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's Peace Formula clearly emphasises this. It is about assessing environmental damage, bringing Russia to justice, and restoring and reconstructing our country. The International Working Group on the Environmental Consequences of War also operates under the umbrella of the Peace Formula. It synchronises the world around the topic of environmental damage.

According to the Ministry of Environmental Protection and Natural Resources of Ukraine, almost 3.6 thousand Russian crimes against the environment were recorded during the full-scale invasion. The enemy has caused us losses worth UAH 2.2 trillion. According to the Ministry of Economy of Ukraine, hundreds of thousands of square kilometres of Ukrainian land are potentially contaminated with mines and shells.

On 9 February, Volodymyr Zelenskyy met with representatives of the International Working Group on the Environmental Consequences of War.

The draft Environmental Treaty for Ukraine, developed by the International Group and presented today, is very important, in particular in the context of the implementation of the 8th paragraph of the Ukrainian Peace Formula, which concerns environmental safety.

This agreement contains 50 recommendations.

The document sets a fundamentally new standard in approaches to assessing the consequences of armed conflicts and standards for assessing the impact of war on the environment.

The recommendations will form the basis for a presentation at the first Global Peace Summit for the world to act in similar situations, which would allow for damage assessment and reparations for environmental damage.

"In two weeks, it will be two years of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine. During this time, more than 3,700 crimes against nature have been documented. The damage that Russia has caused to Ukraine's environment amounts to 56.7 billion euros," said Minister Ruslan Strilets.

Nuclear and radiation safety threats

On 6 February, President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy met with IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi, who was visiting Kyiv and planning a trip to the temporarily occupied Zaporizhzhia NPP. During the conversation, the Head of State reiterated that the only way to prevent a nuclear incident at ZNPP is its complete demilitarisation, de-occupation and Ukraine's regaining control over the plant.

The Minister of Energy of Ukraine Herman Halushchenko also met with the IAEA delegation led by Rafael Grossi. The main topic of the conversation was the risks of removing licensed Ukrainian personnel from their duties at the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhya NPP, as well as the end of the lifetime of nuclear fuel in the plant's reactors.

Commenting on the technical problems at the plant, the IAEA Director General noted that the situation at the facility is unique.

"We have never seen anywhere in the world a situation where nuclear power plants have been in a state of cold shutdown for such a long period of time. So, from a technical point of view, we have a lot of questions," said Rafael Grossi.

Recent attacks on infrastructure and industry sites

On 28 January, Russians attacked Myrnohrad with rockets at night. The shells damaged 14 apartment buildings, educational institutions and 9 cars.

On 30 January, the enemy once again attacked civilians in the Dnipro, Kherson and Kharkiv regions. Dnipropetrovs'k region: a rocket hit the yard of a local resident in Sinelnykivka district. A residential building was destroyed. Another 31 houses were damaged; the occupiers sent 10 drones to Nikopol district. They also fired from artillery. Kherson region: the occupiers attacked Beryslav with drones. Kharkiv region: in the evening, the enemy attacked Bohodukhiv district, damaging a house.

On 31 January, at night, the Russian armed forces attacked the Mykolaiv region with drones. The warehouses of an agricultural enterprise and a shop building were damaged in the Snihuriv community.

On 1 February, Russians shelled the Kamianska Sich national monument in Kherson region with aerial bombs. "The aggressor country has already damaged or destroyed more than 120 monuments of national importance. Today, Russia has struck another blow to our heritage - it hit Kamianska Sich. This proves once again that Russia is deliberately destroying our material culture in order to erase Ukrainians as a nation," said Rostyslav Karandieiev, acting Minister of Culture and Information Policy of Ukraine.

On 6 February, the Russian army attacked Kharkiv region at night. In the village of Zolochiv, a three-storey hotel was destroyed as a result of two attacks by the occupiers with S-300 missiles. Also, seven private houses, 19 civilian infrastructure objects (shops, cafes, kiosks), 2 administrative buildings, and at least 5 civilian cars were damaged.

On 7 February, Russia launched a massive missile attack on the territory of Ukraine. In Kyiv, 11 people were injured. Among them is a pregnant woman. The fire is being extinguished from the 10th to the 15th floors of the 18-storey building. A two-storey service station building is also on fire, with a fire area of approximately 800 m². An industrial facility in Drohobych, Lviv region, was hit, partially destroying the building. The area is about 300 m².

On 9 February, Russians attacked a hotel in the Kharkiv region with drones at night. Rescuers in the Zmiiv community extinguished fires in the hotel building, the restaurant's summer terrace and 3 cars.

Pollution caused directly by hostilities

According to the State Emergency Service of Ukraine (SESU), from February 24, 2022, to February 9, 2024, a total of 469,651 explosive objects have been neutralized on the territory of Ukraine. An area of 1158 square kilometers has been surveyed.

According to the UN, Ukraine is the most mined country in the world.

The State Agency of Forest Resources of Ukraine notes:

The consequences of military ecocide in the forestry sector are hundreds of thousands of destroyed and mined forests. Since the beginning of the full-scale Russian-Ukrainian war in the combat zone and in the de-occupied territories, pyrotechnics have been defusing hundreds of munitions per day.

The total area of forests affected by the war is approximately 3 million hectares, which is almost 30% of all forests in Ukraine.

The situation with the contamination of forests by explosive ordnance on the temporarily occupied forest lands, approximately 1 million hectares, remains unknown.

Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine has caused large-scale environmental consequences not only for our country, but for the whole world. These consequences have no borders. Since 24 February 2022, more than 150 million tonnes of CO2 emissions have been released into the atmosphere, caused by fires and military operations.

Serhii Sydorenko, Head of the Forest Ecology Sector of the Vysotskyi Research Institute of Forestry and Hunting of the Ukrainian State Forestry Academy-URIFFM, took part in the international symposium "Fire in Society" as part of the exchange of experience with international experts on effective fire management, fire prevention in forests, measures to mitigate the impact of fires on ecosystems and fire risk assessment.

The purpose of the event was to draw public attention to the current and potential multidimensional impact of the war on the fire management system in Ukraine, the environment (ecocide) and public safety in the short and long term.

During the event, Serhii Sydorenko presented the results of the project "Ukrainian wildfires of war: changes in fire regimes as a result of the direct and indirect effects of war" within the framework of the #MSCA4Ukraine programme (Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions, the MSCA4Ukraine) and the results of research on the situation with forest and other landscape fires during the period of military operations in Ukraine.

The above-mentioned MSCA4Ukraine project also demonstrates how the indirect consequences of the war were identified and described in terms of social impact and factors that led to the partial collapse of the fire prevention system for extinguishing fires in the combat zone, and caused a significant accumulation of plant combustible materials.

The problem of the use of fire as a weapon was also considered separately, focusing the attention of the European community and the public on the catastrophic impact of war on social life and the environment.

The methodological basis of this study can be used to assess environmental damage caused by armed aggression and to bring to justice those responsible for ecocide in terms of forest and other landscape fires in Ukraine.

Damage to natural reserves and protected ecosystems

Journalists from the working group on the environmental consequences of the war in Ukraine, who are studying the impact of the war on the environment visited eight protected zones in Ukraine and have also spoken to staff from those that are currently under occupation. The consequences of the war are being felt both on the frontline and in occupation, as well as in national parks and reserves located far in the rear.

There are no fewer than eight UNESCO biosphere reserves in Ukraine. These are areas which have internationally protected conservation status and are especially valued for their landscape, geological composition, and flora and fauna.

Two of Ukraine’s UNESCO biosphere reserves – Askania-Nova and the Chornomorsky (Black Sea) reserve – are currently under occupation.

Askania-Nova’s animal collection is under threat of destruction. Today, most of the reserve’s staff have been evacuated to Ukraine-controlled territory, and it is only possible to keep track of what is happening in the reserve by studying satellite images.

This method is also being used to record the consequences of the war on the environment in the Biloberezhia Sviatoslava National Nature Park, part of the Chornomorsky Biosphere Reserve. Despite the fact that the territory of this national park, which forms part of the reserve, is currently occupied, the park’s administration and research department are continuing their work from Ukrainian-controlled territory.

What is happening directly near the frontline is clearly demonstrated by the case of the Desniansko-Starohutsky National Nature Park, which contains the core of the Desniansky Biosphere Reserve. It has suffered enormous damage as a result of the war, since the entire territory of the reserve is shelled almost daily by the Russian armed forces – the reserve runs along the Russian border for 30 kilometers.

Damage to freshwater resources

On 29 January, the Ministry of Environmental Protection and Natural Resources of Ukraine announced that South Korea would help restore the war-damaged water infrastructure.

This is a continuation of the cooperation that was agreed on the sidelines of the COP28 by the Ukrainian Minister of Environmental Protection and Natural Resources Ruslan Strilets and the Korean Minister of Environment Han Hwa-jin. The agreements are also part of the Peace and Solidarity Initiative for Ukraine programme announced by Korean President Yun Seok-ol during his visit to Kyiv in 2023. At that time, the parties launched an initiative to assist Ukraine in the areas of military support, humanitarian assistance and post-war reconstruction.

The Ministry of Environmental Protection and Natural Resources of Ukraine, together with the State Agency of Ukraine for Water Resources and Korean water sector experts, identified the Kozarivtsi Dam in Kyiv region as a pilot project to rebuild the dam, which was damaged in the first days of the full-scale invasion and was of defensive importance for the protection of Kyiv.

The cost of the work was estimated at $14 million. Two Korean companies will help with the restoration: K-Water and KOICA. The restoration of the dam will help protect settlements on the Irpin River coast below the Kyiv Reservoir from flooding.

In addition, the environmental situation in the temporarily occupied Crimea is difficult, in particular due to the lack of water resources. Russians on the peninsula ruthlessly use water resources for their military bases and enterprises operating there. A UNN journalist was informed about this in response to a request from the press service of the Presidential Mission in the AR of Crimea.

It is no secret that the occupiers use the occupied Crimea as one big military base. For example, Russians are building military facilities on the territory of protected areas, destroying the reserve fund. The environmental situation is difficult, in particular due to the lack of water resources. The occupiers in Crimea are ruthlessly using water resources for their military bases and the enterprises that operate there. They need to somehow show that the economy is supposedly working.

Black and Azov Seas

Ukraine has been called one of the most mined countries in the world. The same can be said of the Black Sea. Clearing mines after the war is over is one of the key challenges for both Ukraine and the international community. Suspilne investigated the number of mines in the Black Sea, what is needed to detect and defuse them, and most importantly, how long it will take.

"The negative impact will be on fish, mammals, and birds. Invertebrates are not so harmful because they are not so sensitive to explosions, but they scare away fish. This can change the migration behaviour and spawning behaviour of fish," said Yuriy Kvach, a leading researcher at the Institute of Marine Biology of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine.

Source: https://ecozagroza.gov.ua/en/news/140