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

Nuclear terrorism by Russian invaders and the issue of compensation for the damage inflicted by the aggressor country to Ukraine (including the environmental losses) are on the agenda of high-level international negotiation.

The environment knows no borders, so the consequences of the war in Ukraine will be felt worldwide. This was emphasized by Ruslan Strilets, Ukraine’s Minister of Environmental Protection, at a briefing in the Office of the President of Ukraine for a delegation headed by Celso Amorim, the Chief Advisor to the President of Brazil.

According to the Minister, the war waged by Russia against Ukraine has already led to land pollution, contamination of water and air, as well as the destruction of forests and nature reserves:

one-third of Ukrainian forests have been affected by the war;
20% of nature conservation areas in Ukraine have been impacted;
35% of Europe's biodiversity, which Ukraine possesses, is under threat;
Russia has occupied 740 Ukrainian deposits of raw materials;
approximately 30% of Ukraine's territory is contaminated with explosive remnants of war.
Russia's actions exacerbate the climate crisis. The damage caused to the climate by the war is estimated at an additional 33 million tons of greenhouse gas emissions into the atmosphere.

On May 17, the participants of the Council of Europe Summit in Iceland announced the establishment of the Register of Damage caused by the aggression of the Russian Federation against Ukraine. The creation of the Register, which will be located in The Hague, was supported by 43 states, including all G7 countries (including the United States, Canada, and Japan, which are not members of the Council of Europe).

The Summits’ decision provides for the establishment of a database to record evidence of losses or damages suffered by Ukraine (both by individuals and legal entities) as a result of Russia's unlawful actions starting from February 24, 2022. It is anticipated that the agreed and verified claims will be compensated once the international community agrees on the compensation mechanism and sources for its funding.

Ukraine invites OECD countries to participate in post-war green recovery projects. Sergiy Vlasenko, Ukraine’s Deputy Minister of Environmental Protection for Digital Development, Digital Transformation, and Digitization, made this statement during an online speech at the meeting of the GREEN Action Task Force hosted at the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development in Istanbul on May 11.

According to the Deputy Minister, Ukraine remains committed to reforming and developing the environmental protection sector despite the full-scale war and significant socio-economic consequences. Sergiy Vlasenko noted that last year, a National Recovery Plan from the Consequences of the War was developed for post-war recovery and development of Ukraine. The plan includes the "Environmental Safety" chapter.

Nuclear and radiation safety threats

According to Energoatom, the number of armed occupiers at the temporarily occupied Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant has significantly increased: over 2,500 Russian military personnel are currently stationed there. The occupiers have turned the largest nuclear power plant in Europe into their fortified military base.

Approximately 2,500 employees keep working at the nuclear power plant. The work regulations are becoming increasingly strict. After the recently imposed ban on using even the simplest button cell phones, the Russian terrorists have taken absurdity to a new level - the staff has been prohibited from talking to each other. Any movement within the plant’s site is also strictly forbidden.

The reason for these new restrictions, which hinder the work communication between the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant employees, is simple: the Russian invaders are attempting to mask their firing positions and the large number of military equipment on the plant's premises, which the occupiers have cynically turned into a military base.

During his visit to Italy, while speaking with journalists, President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky emphasized that Ukraine is strongly interested in the assistance of nuclear powers in resolving the issue of nuclear safety, as they are also guarantors of the Budapest Memorandum.

"Let them come to this site, and we will discuss how to solve this. We don't want to impose anything, we just want an understanding that there can't be weapons or militants at the nuclear power plant. A nuclear power plant cannot be shut down, it cannot be flooded, and the entire European continent cannot be threatened with another Chornobyl, this time six times bigger," - said the President of Ukraine.

French President Emmanuel Macron and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky made a joint declaration during their meeting in Paris on May 14. In the declaration, among other things, France and Ukraine insist that Russian occupiers must leave the seized Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant.
"France and Ukraine call specifically on Russia to withdraw from the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant (ZNPP), of which the irresponsible seizure and militarization by Russian armed forces is causing a grave threat," - the declaration states.

Recent attacks on infrastructure and industrial sites

On May 11, the Russians:

shelled a village near Zaporizhzhia with cluster and phosphorus shells, destroying 5 houses.
fired rockets at Sloviansk, damaging 2 high-rise buildings, private houses, and vehicles.

On May 12, the Russians launched an artillery strike on Nikopol, destroying 3 private residences, and damaging 7 industrial buildings, vehicles, power lines, and gas pipelines.On May 13:

a Russian missile attack caused explosions and a fire at a critical infrastructure facility in one of the communities in the Khmelnytskyi district. As a result of the shockwaves, educational institutions, medical facilities, administrative buildings, industrial sites, high-rise buildings, and individual residential houses in Khmelnytskyi were damaged;
a five-story residential building and a two-story building of an industrial enterprise in Mykolaiv were damaged due to drone attacks that caused fires.
due to the Russian shelling of Kostiantynivka in the Donetsk region, 2 people were killed and 10 were injured, including children. High-rise buildings and a gas station were damaged and destroyed.

Late in the evening on May 13 and early in the morning on May 14, the terrorist state launched missile strikes on Ternopil, causing a massive fire at a warehouse containing humanitarian aid packages.On May 14, in Kharkiv, a Russian rocket shelling damaged a transportation infrastructure object, a dormitory building, and a multi-apartment building.On May 15, with a rocket attack the occupiers destroyed a hospital in Avdiivka, the Donetsk region, killing 4 people.During the night of May 16, Russia:

launched a massive attack on Kyiv using UAVs, cruise missiles, and ballistic missiles simultaneously. Fragments of downed missiles fell, including on the territory of Kyiv Zoo, and caused a fire in the Solomianskyi district where buses were burned;
shelled a municipal enterprise that provided electricity to Kherson. The shelling caused a fire and damaged the equipment.

During the night of May 17, the occupiers launched a missile strike on Mykolaiv, damaging a shopping center and an industrial infrastructure object. Fires broke out but were promptly extinguished by the State Emergency Service units.Massive fires at infrastructure and industrial facilities result in air pollution with particularly hazardous substances. Pollutants can be carried by winds over long distances.

Pollution caused directly by hostilities

According to the State Emergency Service of Ukraine, from February 24, 2022, to May 16, 2023, 365,125 explosive objects were neutralized on the territory of Ukraine. An area of 855 square kilometers was surveyed. There are still 174,000 square kilometers of potentially dangerous areas remaining, which accounts for 30% of the country's total area.

In the Kyiv region alone, according to estimates by the Kyiv School of Economics as of the end of 2022, there were 144,000 tons of construction waste. This figure doesn’t include a certain part of buildings that remained undemolished. In the affected Irpin community, the total volume of construction waste from hostilities is 80,000 cubic meters.

Thanks to the support of international partners, including the French company Neo-Eco, a project for the reconstruction of damaged residential buildings is being implemented in Hostomel. At the end of January 2023, the company started work on the first four construction sites in Hostomel. As a result of the work conducted, 90% of the construction waste was successfully recycled, and only 10% was sent to landfills. The issue of recycling becomes relevant for two reasons: from an environmental perspective and due to the problem of overloaded landfills. Concrete and bricks are recycled into small fractions and metal, wooden doors - into particle boards, plaster - into gypsum boards, and glass/PVC - into calcined materials, aluminium, and PVC. Recycling takes place directly at the demolition sites, and the end product is reused for the construction of new housing.

Experts from the State Environmental Inspection of the South-Western District have calculated the environmental damage caused by the pollution resulting from a missile strike on the administrative building of the Mykolaiv Regional Council. The amount is estimated at UAH 328.7 million.

On March 29, 2022, a missile launched by the Russian army destroyed the central part of the regional council building. The contaminated area amounted to more than 5.000 square meters, with a total volume of waste exceeding 100 cubic meters.

Damage to natural reserves and protected ecosystems

According to Forests of Ukraine State Enterprise, as of May 17, large-scale forest fires are ongoing on the border territories of the Chernihiv region due to Russian shelling. Currently, the fires are occurring in two locations within the Semenivske Forestry. The residents of neighboring villages, Bleshnya and Mkhy, were evacuated earlier. However, the fire may spread to the villages of Orlykivka and Baranivka, where people still live. Due to active hostilities, it is impossible to determine the exact area of the wildfire. Local foresters are attempting to extinguish the fire by creating mineral firebreaks near populated areas and installing natural barriers to prevent its spread.

Due to the war, forest restoration in Ukraine has become a crucial issue. As a result of fires caused by Russian attacks, Ukraine is losing thousands of hectares of forests. It will take years to restore them.

Over 109 million seedlings were planted by foresters in the spring of 2023 in Ukraine. In total, the State Forest Resources Agency managed to restore nearly 15,284 hectares of forests. The largest number of trees were planted in the Zhytomyr region - 25.465 mln seedlings, the Rivne region - 20,201 mln seedlings, the Kyiv region - 12,035 mln seedlings, and the Volyn region - 7,875 mln seedlings.

Forest restoration efforts are also taking place in the liberated territories, where it is safe. For example, foresters planted seedlings last autumn in the Sumy, Kyiv, and Chernihiv regions. In spring 2023, forest restoration work was carried out in the Mykolaiv region.

This year, the construction of seven tree nurseries is also planned in the Volyn, Zakarpattia, Ivano-Frankivsk, Kyiv, Sumy, and Chernihiv regions, with an expansion of an existing nursery intended in the Ternopil region.

According to the State Environmental Inspection in the Donetsk region, due to hostilities, the land plot of the Holy Mountains Nature Reserve in Sosnove, the Kramatorsk district, was polluted. The land plot was contaminated with petroleum products and debris from military equipment, covering an area of 10,000 square meters. The estimated damage caused to the land resources due to contamination with hazardous waste amounts to UAH 15.749 billion.

Damage to freshwater resources

The water shortage is becoming an increasingly critical problem for the Russian occupiers in the temporarily uncontrolled Donetsk. This is stated in the intelligence overview of the UK’s Ministry of Defense.

The water shortage has become a growing issue for the Russian-occupied Donetsk since the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022. The Siversky Donets-Donbas Canal, which supplies water to the region, remains under Ukrainian control, but its long route often becomes a target of hostilities.

The canal passes through the town of Chasiv Yar, west of Bakhmut. The intense and indiscriminate use of artillery by Russians to support the attack on Bakhmut and surrounding territories has caused collateral damage to the canal and other regional water infrastructure.

Black and Azov Seas

According to the Mariupol City Council, dead dolphins have been spotted on the coast of the Azov Sea near the city of Mariupol that Russia temporarily occupies. The city residents have repeatedly witnessed the dolphins’ bodies washed-up on the shore. This could be a consequence of the destruction of the natural ecosystem of the Azov Sea by the Russians.

The city is plagued with numerous garbage dumps, and there is no professional environmental control over the soil, rivers, and sea pollution. In April, the Russian occupiers began constructing a dam across the Kalchyk River. The construction is carried out in a barbaric manner, using slag. Toxic leaks from slag into the water can lead to fish mortality in the river.

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