Weekly update on the environmental damage caused by the Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine

Ukraine’s Minister of Environmental Protection Ruslan Stilets and Executive Director of the UN Environment Programme Inger Andersen discussed further cooperation and new environmental projects.

The Minister thanked Ms. Andersen for the UNEP’s support in conducting a preliminary research on Ukraine’s environmental situation  and analyzing the environmental impact of hostilities. They agreed on UNEP's expert support for Ukraine in verifying Ukrainian methodologies for assessing the environmental impact of military operations at the international level. This will allow the data collected on this basis to be presented in international courts.

According to Inger Andersen, UNEP is ready to share its experience within the cooperation with Ukraine. UNEP has unprecedented experience in assessing the impact of military operations on the environment in conflicts in the Balkans, Syria, Iraq, Sudan, and many other regions.

"I am grateful to Ms. Inger Andersen for solidarity with all environmentalists in Ukraine and support for our country in overcoming the environmental challenges that have arisen for the environment due to Russian aggression. We rely on UNEP's expert assistance in improving environmental legislation and verifying methodologies for assessing environmental damage," - Minister Stilets commented.

Ukraine continues to draw the world's attention to the environmental consequences of war. The Washington Post has published a detailed article on the environmental damage inflicted upon Ukraine by the war.

The WP journalists personally visited places where Russian attacks targeted infrastructure in several regions of Ukraine and conducted dozens of interviews with witnesses of environmental crimes, as well as international and national experts in documenting environmental damage. Representatives from Ukraine’s State Agency of Water Resources also commented on the article. The information provided by the Ministry of Environmental Protection and data from the EcoZagroza website were used in the article.

The Ministry of Environmental Protection expresses gratitude to the journalists for drawing attention to the barbaric crimes committed by occupiers on Ukraine’s land. The Washington Post's slogan, "Democracy dies in darkness," is highly relevant today. The more the world knows about the consequences of war and supports Ukraine, the quicker the victory of our democratic state over the bloody Russian dictatorship that kills people and nature will be.

Nuclear and radiation safety threats

The Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant has been occupied by the Russians for over a year. Thousands of plant employees have been taken hostage, the power units have been disconnected from the Ukrainian power system, and due to constant shelling, the plant often loses external power supply and runs on generators.

On March 9, after another Russian attack, the plant went into a blackout mode, and diesel generators worked for over 10 hours. After that, the power line and external power supply to the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant were restored. Currently, the plant is not operating: four power units are in cold shutdown mode, and two are in hot shutdown.

About 2,000 personnel, who are loyal to Ukraine, remain at the plant and control nuclear and radiation safety. Two IAEA inspectors are also present at the plant, monitoring the situation, controlling the plant's parameters, and providing their reports to the headquarters in Vienna.

Petro Kotin, the president of "Energoatom," spoke to the BBC about how the drying of the Kakhovka Reservoir is affecting the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, about the operation of the plant during the blackout mode, and also commented on possible scenarios for the liberation of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant.

The State Agency of Ukraine on Chornobyl Exclusion Zone Management and enterprises of the Exclusion Zone are carefully preparing for the upcoming fire hazardous period.

With the arrival of spring, the risks of fires increase. Additionally, a significant portion of the territory remains mine-contaminated, and Russian occupiers have destroyed necessary equipment and machinery, some of which have been stolen and taken abroad.

Contributions from the International Chornobyl Cooperation Account (ICCA) managed by the EBRD are helping to purchase necessary firefighting equipment. On March 14, 2023, a grant agreement was signed that will provide essential means to extinguish fires in the Exclusion Zone.

Recent attacks on infrastructure and industrial sites

On March 15, Russians:

• launched missiles at civilian infrastructure in Kharkiv, damaging an educational institution;
• attacked Marganets in the Dnipropetrovsk region, damaging 7 high-rise buildings, 4 private houses, and an industrial facility.

On March 16, Russian occupiers:

• attacked a medical facility in Kherson;
• twice launched strikes from Uragan MLRs with cluster munitions on the city of Kostiantynivka in the Donetsk region, damaging at least 19 buildings, a school, and an industrial enterprise.

On March 17, Russians:

• hit a high-rise building with a missile in Avdiivka;
• used a UAV to attack a critical infrastructure facility in Novomoskovsk in the Dnipropetrovsk region, causing a fire.

On March 18, Russians shelled 8 Ukrainian regions with mortars and artillery. In particular, they damaged 92 residential buildings, a school, an emergency services building, and a municipal enterprise in the Donetsk region.On March 19, the aggressor country struck a residential building in Zaporizhzhia.On March 20:

• a fire broke out in a warehouse in one of the districts of Kherson after Russian shelling;
• Russians hit the center of Kramatorsk with a rocket strike, damaging 9 high-rise buildings.

On March 21, around 15 residential buildings were damaged in Chasiv Yar, the Donetsk region, due to numerous shelling attacks.

On March 22, Russians launched kamikaze drones in a night attack on Ukraine, hitting dormitories in the Kyiv region and killing 9 people. In the afternoon on March 22, Russians launched another terrorist attack on residential buildings in Zaporizhzhia, injuring 34 people.

During the first year of Russia's full-scale invasion, clean air was monitored in Kyiv for over 90% of the time. The most significant damage during this period was caused by fires from active combat operations around the capital in March 2022. These were the findings presented by the Head of the Department of Ecology and Natural Resources of the Kyiv City State Administration, Oleksandr Voznyi, during the roundtable discussion "How the full-scale war affected the air quality in Kyiv."

Pollution caused directly by hostilities

According to the International Coordination Center for Humanitarian Demining of the State Emergency Service of Ukraine, from February 24, 2022 to March 22, 2023, 335,209 explosive objects, including 2,194 aircraft bombs, were neutralized in Ukraine. An area of 811.6 square kilometers was surveyed for explosives. There are still 174,000 square kilometers of potentially dangerous areas remaining, which is 30% of the country's total area.

The map of potentially dangerous territories due to contamination with mines and unexploded ordnance in Ukraine.

According to estimates by the KSE Agrocenter and the Ministry of Agrarian Policy of Ukraine, the country's agricultural sector incurred losses of $41 billion due to Russian occupation as of November 2022.

Grains grown on soil contaminated by military actions can cause the formation of malignant tumors or disrupt the human nervous system's functioning. Soil damage resulting from military actions can be mechanical, physical, and chemical. Each of these impacts is critical in its own way and causes the destruction of the soil structure and functions. More details can be found in an article published in Kurkul.

One of the most significant obstacles to the restoration of the agricultural sector in liberated Southern Ukraine remains the landmines on farmland. The head of the demining group of the State Emergency Service of Ukraine in the Kherson region, Oleksandr Dvoretskyi, estimated that the approximate area of farmland contaminated with shells and mines could be up to 300,000 hectares. More information about how Ukrainian farmers in the liberated fields of the Kherson region overcome death for the sake of a new harvest can be found in an article by Novynarnia media outlet.

Damage to natural reserves and protected ecosystems

On March 21, the International Day of Forests, the spring season of tree planting was launched in Ukraine. In 2023, the planting of no less than 200 million seedlings is planned, including in liberated territories.

As Ruslan Strilets noted: "Ukrainian forests have now become a battlefield. The Russian army burns, devastates, turns them into labyrinths of trenches, and chops them down for firewood. They are destroying the planet's protective shield. Almost half a million hectares of Ukrainian forest are under occupation. We do not have access and do not know what is happening there, but we do know that we will be able to restore them within the framework of the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky's program, "Green Country." The program's task now is not only to plant new forests but also to restore the destroyed ones. Foresters have already completed more than 24% of the program and have no intention of stopping there."

According to the Regional Eastern European Fire Monitoring Centre, last year, fire ravaged 755,600 hectares of land of all categories, of which 56,000 hectares were forests. Due to hostilities, it was challenging to extinguish fires in the forests due to the lack of access to the areas and the contamination with explosive items. During the interregional training-practical forum "Forests of Ukraine: European integration, war, climate change, and modern reforms," participants discussed the issue of forest restoration after the war.

During the Russian large-scale invasion of Ukraine, a significant number of wild animals were evacuated under the CITES convention. These included Himalayan and brown bears, leopards, tigers, lions, ring-tailed and ruffed lemurs, star tortoises, Jaco parrots, Pacific bottle-nosed dolphins, Black Sea bottlenose dolphins, South American sea lions, caracals, and gray wolves. The owners and volunteers often transported these animals to Poland, the Czech Republic, Belgium, and the Netherlands, where they were placed in suitable living conditions.

Many species of wild animals are listed under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES). To transport such animals across the state border, obtaining a permit/certificate in accordance with CITES requirements is mandatory. Ukraine’s Ministry of Environmental Protection has prepared a guideline on how to go through the procedure and obtain the necessary permit.

Damage to freshwater resources

The Russian military has destroyed the water supply system in the Donetsk region. The loss of access to drinking water forces people to use any available water sources (such as surface water bodies, wells, and springs) just to survive. People are forced to consume water of unknown quality. Control over water quality is impossible in temporarily occupied territories. This, in turn, can lead to outbreaks of waterborne diseases or sanitation-related issues.

The war has led to the destruction of numerous metallurgical, chemical, petrochemical, and galvanic industrial enterprises. As a significant part of monitoring points is inaccessible, it is difficult to establish the impact of pollution on the water quality in the Siverskyi Donets. However, in July 2022, the mercury content exceeded the norm by 8.4 times in the Sukhyi Torets River near Sloviansk. Due to combat operations, most mines' pumping out has been stopped, including in Vuhledar, and the situation in Toretsk is unknown. The current status of flooding in mines in the territories occupied before February 24, 2022, is unknown, but earlier reports indicated that water pumping had practically stopped across the territory from Horlivka to Yenakiieve. Mine waters have a high mineralization level, sulfate content, and contain iron and manganese. Their release into groundwater will make water from wells unfit for drinking, and overflow into surface water bodies may result in the lack of potential drinking water sources in the Donetsk region.

More information on the situation regarding the destruction of water supply and drainage infrastructure in the Donetsk region is available in the research published by EPL NGO.

Black and Azov Seas

On March 16, the US government released a video of a Russian Su-27 fighter jet attacking an American MQ-9 Reaper drone, which occurred on March 14 over the Black Sea. The footage shows the Russian fighter jet approaching the drone and intentionally dropping toxic aviation fuel, which then polluted the sea. Once again, the Russians have demonstrated their negligence of environmental protection.

At the depths of the Black Sea, there are unique fields of Phyllophora that form landscapes with valuable biota. Combat operations pose a direct threat to them. Another victim of the war is Snake Island, which boasted unique rock formations with characteristic biota. Part of the cliffs has been physically destroyed. Snake Island was also used as a resting place for birds, including those that do not live on the mainland. Currently, scientists have no way to assess the scale of damage to the island's ecosystem, as all monitoring and research missions on the island are currently suspended.

The issue of abnormally high mortality among dolphins and porpoises in the Black Sea has gained significant attention. Ecologists suspect that this is a result of active combat operations, as the animals are sensitive to underwater waves, sounds of explosions, and the operation of sonar equipment. Scientists from the Institute of Zoology of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine were granted permission to conduct research within the framework of a criminal investigation. They took samples of various tissues from the animals' brains, and molecular samples are now being analyzed in Europe. More information on the damage caused to marine ecosystems by warfare can be found in an interview with Dr. Mykhailo Son, Senior Research Fellow at the Institute of Marine Biology of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine in Odesa.

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