Briefing on the environmental damage caused by the russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine ( September 9 -September 22, 2023)

With the onset of the war in Ukraine, our environment faced a significant threat. According to environmental organizations and researchers, russia has inflicted irreparable damage to the Ukrainian nature, the full extent of which is even difficult to quantify.

The Minister of Environmental Protection and Natural Resources of Ukraine, Ruslan Strilets, participated in the second meeting of the International Working Group on the Environmental Consequences of War, co-chaired by the Head of the Office of the President of Ukraine, Andriy Yermak, and the former Vice Prime Minister and former Minister of Foreign Affairs of Sweden, Margot Wallström.

"The environmental direction aims to develop and implement a comprehensive plan for the environmental recovery of Ukraine from the consequences of war. The corresponding mechanisms to be developed and applied for Ukraine should be universal and effectively prevent crimes against the environment worldwide, reflected in relevant resolutions of the UN General Assembly and other documents of international law," emphasized Yermak.

According to Ruslan Strilets, work is currently underway on the development and implementation of a comprehensive plan for the environmental recovery of Ukraine from the consequences of war:

We continue to advocate for point 8 of President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's Peace Formula.

We are collaborating with international partners. The UNEP mission has already prepared an assessment project for the environmental consequences of the explosion at the Kakhovka Hydroelectric Power Plant (HPP). Based on this report, they are expected to develop an environmental restoration program.

Partial restoration of ecosystems:

We are restoring forests wherever possible. Under President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's "Green Country" Program, nearly 16,000 hectares of forests have been restored this year.

National park staff have sown hundreds of hectares of the Kakhovka Reservoir bottom with annual plants. This will help prevent dust storms and the spread of invasive species.

"Environment knows no borders. Today, we are working for the future of the entire world," emphasized Ruslan Strilets.

He also added that over the last 2.5 months, the amount of environmental damage has increased by nearly 1.5 billion US dollars. Today, it has already reached 57 billion US dollars, and these figures are far from final.

Recent attacks on infrastructure and industry sites
On September 10, as a result of an enemy attack in one of the districts of the Kyiv region, an infrastructure facility was damaged. The explosive wave damaged 8 private houses: windows were shattered, doors were knocked down, facades and roofs were damaged.

In one of the communities, the explosive wave damaged the school building, kindergarten, and the village council. In another, it affected an educational and rehabilitation center. A forest underbrush was on fire.

On the night of September 13, the occupiers attacked the southern part of the Odesa region. The russians launched several groups of strike drones in the Izmail district. The port and other civil infrastructure were damaged.

On the night of September 17, russian military forces launched rockets and drones and attacked the Odesa region, damaging agricultural infrastructure and a grain storage facility.

Also, on September 18, the enemy targeted the Izmail district. Hits were recorded on the recreational infrastructure in Vylkove.

On September 19, occupiers attacked Lviv. As a result of the attack, a fire broke out in an industrial warehouse, leading to the destruction of 300 tons of humanitarian aid.

"I strongly condemn the russian strike, which this morning destroyed the warehouse of the non-governmental organization 'Caritas-Spes' in Lviv, in western Ukraine. This is an important humanitarian facility," said the UN Coordinator in Ukraine, Denis Brown.

On September 21, the enemy struck an energy infrastructure facility in the Rivne region. A part of the Rivne district was left without electricity.

Pollution caused directly by hostilities

According to the State Emergency Service of Ukraine (SESU), from February 24, 2022, to September 22, 2023, a total of 433 270 explosive items were neutralized on the territory of Ukraine. An area of 967 square kilometers has been surveyed.

In total, in Ukraine, an area of approximately 174,000 square kilometers needs to be surveyed for the presence of explosive objects.

The Ministry of Defense explains that these are territories where active military operations have been or are currently being conducted, areas under temporary occupation, and regions subjected to aerial and missile strikes.

On September 21, a presentation of a study titled "How a Full-Scale War Has Affected Air Quality in Ukraine" took place. The event was organized by the non-governmental organization "SaveDnipro."
The public organization "Save Dnipro" conducted a study on how a full-scale war affected air quality in Ukraine.

"The issue of air quality is a matter of our survival. Today, there are many different impurities in the air, a huge number of these impurities are harmful and expose us to various diseases. It can be nitrogen oxide, benzopyrene, formaldehyde, or something that is absolutely unhealthy to breathe. This causes a huge number of diseases - laryngitis, tonsillitis, bronchial asthma, pneumonia. We start treating ourselves, but in fact these diseases are caused by what we breathe." said Victoria Khrutba, Doctor of Technical Sciences, Head of the Ecology Department of the National Transport University, at the beginning of the research presentation.

Currently, according to the research, the Donetsk region is the leader in reducing emissions from stationary sources, as the work of enterprises has stopped there, and this trend is also recorded in the Dnipropetrovsk and Mykolaiv regions. At the same time, such indicators have increased in the west of the country, which is explained by the fact that the share of enterprises was relocated to the western regions, as well as the internal migration of people who moved to the western border regions together with cars, which are also sources of emissions.

Also, all enterprises in Ukraine need to immediately modernise and clean up the emissions they release into the atmosphere.

A separate part of the study was the study of environmental crimes.

So, the researchers analyzed data on the composition of the air at specific points of the study before and after the event. Such an event, can be an environmental crime, as a result of which a large amount of dangerous substances can enter the air - rocket fire, fire. Since specific locations cannot be made public during the war, the researchers relied on the maximum permissible concentrations recorded at the monitoring stations, which increased sharply after the event.

"We see a time-lapse dependence on how the event occurred, and that the pollutants from the event, whether it was an arrival or an explosion, were released into the air and significantly, doubled or tripled the limit concentrations of pollutants at the scene, and over time after 8 -12 hours, the air quality improved significantly at the point (research - ed). This means that dispersion took place, and all pollutants spread over the region and settled in the soil. In addition to soil pollution and worsening conditions for agriculture, we must consider that pollutants substances enter surface and ground water sources and end up in drinking water intakes," said the environmental director of SaveDnipro NGO Anastasia Skok.

Damage to natural reserves and protected ecosystems

Employees of the State Environmental Inspectorate of the Southern District continue to assess the environmental damage caused by armed aggression and hostilities.

As a result of the explosion at the Kakhovska HPP, within the territory of the state-level general geological reserve "Dnipro Rapids," destruction has been observed, including the destruction of benthic vegetation covering an area of 85.9 hectares, as well as flowering herbaceous plants, fern-like plants, and bivalve mollusks.

In the "Sviati Hory" park in Donetsk region, the territory where unique Cretaceous pines once grew, destroyed by russian forces during the battles for Sviatohirsk, still cannot be surveyed.

Before the full-scale russian invasion, the Holy Mountains National Nature Park was home to nearly a thousand unique, red-listed Cretaceous pines. During the fighting for Sviatohirsk, the russians destroyed this tree species, as reported by the head of the Holy Mountains National Nature Park, Serhii Pryimachuk.

"The significant damage suffered by nature not only in the park but throughout Ukraine is enormous. Almost all Cretaceous pines, which are relict species that have adapted to grow on chalky hills over millennia, have been destroyed," said Serhii Pryimachuk.

According to scientist Serhii Kurmas, this species of pine could only be found in two places in Ukraine, specifically in Donetsk region, in the Chalk Flora Nature Reserve and in the Holy Mountains NNP.

"For example, in the village of Bohorodychne, there was a center for Cretaceous pine, which is a relict species. It is a red-listed species on the brink of extinction, found only within the territory of Donetsk region," explained Serhiy Kurmas.

"These areas now resemble complete wastelands with nothing alive. Restoring these areas will be very difficult because there is no seed material for this."

Currently, the restoration of Cretaceous pines in the "Sviati Hory" park cannot be carried out due to landmines in the forests and russian shelling.

"In this period, even though the front has moved back a bit, they continue to drop incendiary munitions from drones. We've already had three such fires this month. The difficulty in extinguishing them lies in the fact that the forests are mined, and the last time we fought a fire, munitions started exploding in the trenches", — said Serhiy Kurmas.

Damage to freshwater resources

In the temporarily occupied territories of Zaporizhia region, russian occupiers are committing another act of ecocide by destroying the banks of the Molochna river.

This was reported on Telegram by the Mayor of Melitopol, Ivan Fedorov.

"The occupiers are committing ecocide near Melitopol - they are destroying the banks of the Molochne River. They claim to be concerned about the environment. In reality, they plan to use the waters of the Molochne River to fill irrigation canals," the message says.

Such a decision could lead to an increase in the salinity of the water in the Azov Sea and impact groundwater, emphasized Fedorov.

Environmentalists have reported on the state of the water and bottom sediments on the depleted banks of the Dnipro and Mokra Moskovka rivers.

The consequences of the reservoir's destruction were discussed by Maxim Soroka, PhD in Technical Sciences, associate professor of the Department of Chemistry and Engineering Ecology at the Ukrainian State University of Science and Technologies, and an expert on environmental safety in the "Dovkola" network of research organizations.

"This disaster can be compared to the Chornobyl disaster. And the more time passes, the more I am convinced that this is the case. In other words, the consequences will be long-lasting. The Kakhovka reservoir had several functions that are hardly ever mentioned. It was such a huge water reserve and volume that allowed us to supplement the return water released from the agglomerations of Zaporizhzhia, Nikopol and Marhanets.

And at the time when they were building huge agglomerations, they wisely divided the cascade into reservoirs. Any agglomeration always involves wastewater. And before allowing them to pass through the cascade, they needed to be treated. The Kakhovka Reservoir was an accumulator for what was not properly treated throughout the cascade because it was the last reservoir before we discharged the mass into the delta and further into the Black Sea. The volume of the Kakhovka Reservoir was about 18 cubic kilometers, and its volume was much greater than the volume of wastewater, which allowed for concentration balancing and diluting the return flow," explained Maksym Soroka.

Despite the common belief, the greatest impact on the ecosystem is not caused by mercury or heavy metals, but by small carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus, and oxygen cycles.

After drying, we have a huge amount of bottom sediments that formed over many years, and now their oxygen and temperature regime has changed. These bottom sediments, compounds of phosphorus, carbon, sulfur, which accumulated for many years, have now started to oxidize actively and transition into water-soluble forms with the change in temperature-oxygen regime. Now, all soluble compounds will continue their migration downstream into the lower cascade and further into the Dnipro and Black Sea estuary.

Regarding nitrates, their concentration is increasing, and there is residual waterlogging, which is already affecting the ecosystem. Secondary water pollution is occurring. The consequences of nitrates initially manifest as a boom in vegetation, which we are currently witnessing. However, this will lead to a change in the species composition in the sediment and in hydrobionts. This increase in concentration poses a threat to water bodies in the lower cascade.

A high content of nitrogen compounds in water can be dangerous, even leading to lethal consequences, especially for children," emphasized Maksym Soroka.

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