Six months of war in Ukraine: the environment, collateral damage of the conflict

Published on: 08/24/2022 – 02:00 After six months of conflict, the measurement of the environmental impact of the war in Ukraine is still in its infancy. Targeted by Russian strikes, Ukrainian industrial sites have released substances that are dangerous to man and nature. Biodiversity is particularly damaged by the effect of the fighting: soils, rivers, animals and plants are already suffering. But the extent of the damage will only be known once the war is over. A Russian infantry battle tank slowly burns along a Ukrainian road. In six months of war, Russia has lost 5,420 military vehicles in Ukraine, according to US services. Almost as many carcasses of abandoned scrap metal, sometimes in the middle of nature, which does not fail to worry the activists of the NGO Ukrainian Nature Conservation Group (UNCG). liters”, underlines this group of defense of the environment. Admittedly, part of these tanks were empty, “but a certain quantity of oil escaped from them. Lubricants and diesel fuel contain lead and other heavy metals, polycyclic arenes present in all fossil fuels and a a number of other volatile organic compounds”, warns the NGO. The contamination of Ukrainian rivers and soil remains one of the main fears of environmental activists. A justified concern in this country, one of the most industrialized in Europe, which has a stock of 6 billion tonnes of liquid waste from mining and industrial activity. However, for six months, these sites have been the frequent target of Russian strikes. According to data from the United Nations Environment Program, the conflict has caused damage in many regions, with incidents at nuclear power plants and installations. , oil and gas infrastructure, including refineries, drilling platforms, distribution pipelines, coal mines and agro-industrial sites. Dangerous substances, such as solvents, fertilizers and nitric acid, were released by these explosions.”Air poisoning”Given the scale of the phenomenon, the UN warned of a “legacy toxic environment” for Ukraine and its region. The Ukrainian Ministry of Ecology speaks for its part of “air poisoning” by “particularly dangerous substances”. “Pollutants can be carried by the winds over long distances,” warns kyiv in a report from July, after recording numerous fires caused by Russian strikes on gas stations and industrial sites, including the thermal power plant of Vouhlehirsk, in the Donetsk region. An oil refinery targeted outside the city of Lysytchansk, in the Donbass, on May 22, 2022. © AFP Near the city of Ternopil, east of Lviv, samples taken from river water have showed ammonia levels 163 times higher than normal, and nitrate levels 50 times too high, after Russian missile debris fell on a fertilizer plant.In addition, the Ukrainian Nature Conservation Group draws attention to the pollution caused by the sulfur contained in the bombs “which destroy the seeds and roots of grasses with the sulfuric acid formed in contact with water”. “This conflict is extremely polluting, by its intensity and its extent. No region of Ukraine is spared”, also worries Nickolai Denisov, director of the Swiss NGO Zoï Environment Network. that Ukraine has many protected areas with unique species. The UNCG has drawn up a list of around twenty endemic plants whose preservation is threatened by explosions, the passage of military vehicles and devastating fires that no one extinguishes in combat zones. One hectare out of three destroyed by the fire in Ukraine is a protected area, specifies the NGO, which has recorded more than 37,000 fires due to strikes between February and June – in just four months of war -, from data collected by satellite images of The NASA. “These plants are found in the territories occupied by Russia and where large-scale bombardments take place. If we lose these species in their natural environment, we will lose them forever”, lament the activists. More unexpectedly, dolphins are not not spared either. In the Black Sea, sonar emissions from warships destroy the inner ear of these animals and upset their daily lives. Nearly 3,000 cetaceans have been found dead on the coasts of the region since the start of the conflict, according to a count made by Turkish, Ukrainian, Romanian and Bulgarian scientists. KARADENİZ KIYILARINDA GÖRÜLEN OLAĞANDIŞI YUNUS ÖLÜMLERİ HAKKINDA Son bir aydır Türkiye’nin özellikle Batı Karadeniz kıyılarında tırtak türü (Delphinus delphis) yunusların ölümlerinde olağűkbirted art. pic.twitter.com/Myq8WLNLwe— Türk Deniz Araştırmaları Vakfı (TÜDAV) (@TudavTudav) March 26, 2022 Ukraine is also a place of passage for migratory birds, especially the shores of the Black Sea, which constitute a zone of nesting. Several nature reserves, located in combat zones, play an “extremely important role in preserving the populations of many bird species on a European scale”, specifies the Ukrainian Nature Conservation Group. However, the agents of the protection services can no longer go to these areas. “We will find out the extent of the damage later”, regret the environmental activists. Census of the traces of combat “We are convinced that, while the soldiers of the Ukrainian armed forces are fighting to put an end to the genocide of the Ukrainian people, the environmental front must ensure that ecocide is prevented,” said the NGO. “We lack precise data, because at the moment it is impossible to investigate in combat zones, either because there are mines, or because they are front lines or occupied territories. remains essential to precisely measure the impact of the war”, explains Oleksiy Vasyliuk, director of the UNCG. “It will take time once the war is over. In the meantime, we must document as much as possible any traces of the fighting in order to be able to measure the consequences on the environment”, warns Nickolai Denisov, whose NGO, supported by the United Nations, has published an interactive map of the environmental risks of this war. For its part, the Ukrainian government lists the environmental damage attributed to the Russians on a daily basis and plans to seek compensation for the damage caused in international courts. At the same time, kyiv has already committed to an environmental restoration plan financed by the European Union and other partners, the outlines of which were presented in July. This includes plans to replant trees or build many rehabilitation centers for wild animals. However, several environmental organizations warn. They accuse the Ukrainian government of taking advantage of this to encourage the increase of arable land to the detriment of the forest and to accelerate logging. They have sent a letter to the European Commission asking it to ensure that the initiative, which includes several billion euros in grants and loans, comes with strong environmental conditions.