For the first time in history, people in Ukraine are attempting to systematically estimate the damage done to the environment by Russia's War on Ukraine. Russia's crimes against nature will be included in Ukraine's compensation claim against Russia for its aggression, which stands now at $50bn. The environment ministry has set up a hotline for citizens to report instances of "ecocide". The report tally is now 2,303 with weekly updates.
These reports show that about one-third of the Ukraine's surface is potentially dangerous, strewn with ordinance, exploded or unexploded, toxic chemicals, and 230,000 tons of scrap metal--the remains of Russian armour and other equipment. Up to 40% of arable land is not available for cultivation. Sixteen wetlands are threatened with destruction. Six hundred species of animals and 880 species of plants are in danger of extinction. Vast forest fires have been sparked by explosions, particularly in Luhansk Oblast where 17,000 hectares have been burnt. Over 2m forested hectares have been destroyed. Attacks on industrial centers have released benzopyrene; nitrogen oxides and carbon monoxide into the atmosphere. Russian troops dug trenches in the soil of the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone, apparently obliviously of the radiation absorbed by the soil.
Perhaps these figures need to be tempered by the potential for propaganda, but clearly counting the biodiversity cost of war is a new development. During WWII entire cities were flattened by conventional ordinance, and eventually by nuclear weapons. Russia is not the first nation to employ area bombardment as a means of breaking the enemy's will to fight. In South Vietnam entire landscapes were subjected to intense chemical warfare to deny the enemy sanctuary beneath the canopy. The tactic did not work, and the immense biological damage when unaccounted. More recently the burning of oil wells in the Gulf War was disparaged, but no attempt was made to calculate the costs to Nature.
Legal scholars hope Ukraine can push the development of ecocide as a crime against Nature under international law akin to recognized crimes against humanity. Collecting data, often by volunteers who risk going near the fighting, is the first step to quantifying the damage done. President Zelenskiy is proposing that protecting of the environment as a key element in his country's proposals for peace. The prosecutor general of Ukraine is already processing eleven cases under Section 441 of the Ukrainian criminal code; it is one of several former Soviet bloc nations that have nature crimes in their codes.
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| Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant, credit: Reuters |
It is axiomatic that Nature is resilient, but even Nature can be pushed too far out of balance as man is finding out to his distress. Ukraine will need help with restoration after the conflict ends. That restoration must include helping Nature reclaim its former health and diversity. In some cases restoration will mean improving environmental conditions that existed before the war, such as reducing industrial pollution or not re-building dams. In the end these efforts will help the people of Ukraine return to a sense of normaility.