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

Despite being at war, Ukraine actively participates in global processes to achieve Sustainable Development Goals. The delegation of Ukraine, led by the Minister of Environmental Protection and Natural Resources of Ukraine Ruslan Strilets, attended the UN Water Conference 2023.

Together with Ukraine's Permanent Representative to the UN, Sergiy Kyslytsya, the delegation worked to garner support in countering Russian aggression from as many countries as possible.

On the sidelines of the conference, Minister Ruslan Strilets held 11 bilateral meetings with representatives of the US Department of State, UNECE, and Ministers of Environmental Protection of Germany, UK, France, Italy, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia, UAE, and Moldova.

"Events such as the UN Water Conference are extremely important for our country, which is attacked every day by both Russian missiles and propaganda. It is essential to remind the world that the environment knows no borders. War knows no borders. The Russians came with weapons to our shared home. They are burning everything alive on the only planet we have," - said Ruslan Strolets. "The Ukrainian delegation also used this opportunity to strengthen cooperation with our international partners to hold the aggressor country responsible for the inflicted environmental damage and to get support for Ukraine's post-war green recovery."

At the international online conference "The Environmental Consequences of Russian War in Ukraine: Together for the future recovery of the Ukrainian Environment," Czech and Ukrainian experts and government officials discussed how to restore the environment after the war. A detailed analytical report on the impact of military operations on the environment during the first year of the full-scale war, analyzing both direct consequences of the war on the environment, such as destruction and pollution, as well as indirect consequences, was presented at the conference.

Nuclear and radiation safety threats

On March 25, the Russian dictator announced that the construction of a storage facility for Russian tactical nuclear weapons would be completed in Belarus by July 1. In response to this announcement, the German Ministry of Foreign Affairs stated that Russia was using nuclear intimidation and reminded about the international obligations of Belarus under several declarations to be a nuclear-weapon-free zone. Ukraine demands that the UN Security Council be convened in connection with Russia's intentions to place tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus.

Since the start of the full-scale war, the terrorist country has made Ukrainian civilian nuclear facilities the central target of its military strategy. Jennifer Granholm, the US Secretary of Energy, reminded in a column for The Hill about the outrageous actions of Russian occupiers against Ukrainian nuclear facilities and called for more resolute action against Russian terrorism.

Over the past year, Russia has launched a campaign that grossly disregards the basic principles of nuclear security. Such unlawful and reckless behavior of the occupiers requires the attention of the whole world and our actions.

Russia seized and later looted the Chornobyl nuclear power plant, and then used the site as a foothold for its attempt to capture Kyiv. In addition, the aggressors attacked the Kharkiv Institute of Physics and Technology. In September 2022, a Russian missile damaged the buildings of the South Ukrainian nuclear power plant.

On March 29, Rafael Grossi, the Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency, arrived at the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant. This is the second visit by the head of the IAEA to the largest nuclear plant in Europe since it was occupied by Russian forces. The visit lasted several hours. Rafael Grossi returned to the territory under Ukraine's control with experts from the Agency's Permanent Mission, who had been stationed at the Zaporizhzhia plant until the current rotation. Other representatives of the IAEA will continue to monitor the situation at the nuclear facility.

Recent attacks on infrastructure and industrial sites

On the night of March 24:

• the Russians carried out a massive drone attack on Kryvyi Rih;
• 3 people were killed as a result of a Russian missile hitting a humanitarian aid center in Kostiantynivka, the Donetsk region;
• the Russians launched a massive attack on the Sumy region: an administrative building, a school building, and houses were destroyed or damaged.

On March 25, Russian occupiers:

• shelled a humanitarian aid distribution facility in Kherson;
• attacked Avdiivka (including its industrial zone) with two rockets.

On March 26, Russian forces launched 20 attacks in the Kherson region, firing 97 heavy artillery shells and "Grad" rockets. Four people were injured.On March 27, the terrorist country attacked the cities of Sloviansk and Druzhkivka in the Donetsk region with missiles. A children's home, administrative and office buildings, 5 multi-story buildings, and 7 private houses were destroyed.On March 28:

• a Russian drone attacked a private enterprise in Dnipro, causing a massive fire on an area of 4,000 square meters.
• a Russian attack on a three-story administrative building in Kyiv caused the collapse of building structures and a fire with a total area of 70 square meters.

Over the course of a year of full-scale war, Russia damaged or destroyed at least 426 large and medium-sized enterprises and tens of thousands of small enterprises in Ukraine. This is stated in the assessment of the KSE Institute completed within the "Russia will pay" project.The real scale of damage is likely to be higher, as not all enterprises have information available, especially in temporarily occupied territories. The damaged enterprises can be divided into two groups. The first group is comprised of enterprises that were destroyed accidentally during the shelling of military units and settlements. The second group was destroyed deliberately as part of targeted strategic missile strikes.The metallurgical industry suffered the most damage. In particular, two metallurgical enterprises (Azovstal and Ilyich Iron and Steel Works), which are the largest on the list, were destroyed in Mariupol.In terms of regions, the Donetsk region suffered the most, accounting for almost half of the total direct damage to businesses. There were also significant losses in the Kharkiv, Luhansk, and Kyiv regions.

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 29, 2023, 337,727 explosive objects, including 2,200 aircraft bombs, were neutralized in Ukraine. An area of 813.8 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.

Ukraine is the most mine-contaminated country in the world. The Russian invasion turned the country into a vast minefield the size of the United Kingdom or Romania, or South Korea and North Korea combined. Almost every day, tragedies occur when Ukrainians are killed or injured by mines. As of the end of 2022, the State Emergency Service of Ukraine reported 185 deaths and 404 injuries caused by mine explosions since the full-scale invasion began.

Demining is divided into three types: combat demining, which takes place directly on the front lines and involves the work of military sappers; operational demining, which involves emergency clearance of critical infrastructure objects and neutralization of detected explosive items, and may also involve the work of experts of the State Emergency Service or the National Guard; and humanitarian demining, which is carried out by deminers who report dangerous items to sappers without removing them. This is the final stage of inspection and cleaning of the territory, which guarantees 100% safety. Clearing the entire mine-contaminated territory of Ukraine will cost billions of hryvnias.

Mines are sometimes compared to radiation – in both cases, people have to leave contaminated areas. So, it is possible that new exclusion zones will be created in Ukraine, where only desperate stalkers will go, and nature will recover without human intervention.

No one knows how long the fighting will continue, but each day increases the time and budget required for future demining. This is the danger that will remain for generations. Even after the victory, the echoes of the war will be heard for decades in the forests of the Chernihiv region or in the fields of the Kharkiv region. More details about the problem of mine clearance in Ukraine can be found in the article of the Ukrainian Pravda.

Over a year since the start of Russia's full-scale military invasion, the total amount of direct documented damage to residential and non-residential real estate and other infrastructure has amounted to more than USD 143.8 bn. The most significant amount of damage was done to residential buildings. According to preliminary data from the regional military administrations, as of 24 February 2023, the total number of destroyed or damaged housing objects is about 153.86 thousand buildings, of which 136 thousand are private (individual) houses; 17.5 thousand are apartment buildings; 0.3 thousand are dormitories.

The destruction of buildings and settlements leads to pollution of the environment with construction waste and asbestos. The consequences of such pollution for the environment will last for years.

Damage to natural reserves and protected ecosystems

Located in the Kherson region, Askania-Nova, the largest steppe reserve in Europe, is unique not only for Ukraine but for the entire world. This nature reserve and scientific research institution ensures the preservation of the largest area of feather grass and fescue steppe in Europe, which is subject to preservation and study under the UNESCO Man and the Biosphere Programme.

As reported by its employees, the Russian occupation administration has taken effective control of the Askania-Nova reserve and appointed its own director.

Until now, despite the occupation of the area, the institution has functioned and carried out the planned types and volumes of work. All urgent needs and current expenses for the protection of natural ecosystems, livelihoods, and maintenance of the zoo and arboretum were covered by charitable contributions.

At present, the staff continues to perform its duties and provides necessary care for the animals, but the preservation of the internationally significant nature reserve and scientific research institution in the future cannot be ensured by its legitimate Ukrainian administration and is under direct threat.

The Ministry of Environmental Protection has already sent protest notes to the Secretariats of the Bern, Ramsar, and Bonn Conventions, the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), as well as to the Secretariat of the International Union for Conservation of Nature and to the National Commission for UNESCO. This will allow the issue to gain widespread attention and engage the international community in solving the problem, as well as to seek support for ensuring the future of Askania-Nova.

From a biological perspective, Crimea is a unique region whose flora and fauna include an unparalleled number of rare and endemic species not found anywhere else in Ukraine. It is not surprising that one-third of Ukraine's nature reserves are located in the Crimean Peninsula.

The occupation and annexation of Crimea in 2014 led to the militarization of the peninsula. The size of the territories where Russian troops have created military training grounds in Crimea is staggering. It is impossible to determine the exact boundaries of all the training grounds from open sources. However, only the "Opuk" and "Chauda" training grounds have a total area of ​​over 55,000 hectares. Located in the Kerch Peninsula, the "Chauda," "Opuk," and "Bagerivsky" training grounds include areas of the Emerald Network of Europe. Additionally, the Opuk Nature Reserve is part of the Opuk training ground, while the Bagerivsky training ground includes the entire territory of the Karalar Regional Landscape Park.

Lands used for military training grounds are some of the last places where rare species of steppe zone birds were found in Ukraine: Demoiselle crane, Great bustard, Eurasian thick-knee, and Collared pratincole. These largely unpopulated areas were in fact the only place in the country where these species could safely nest. In the case of Great bustards, they also form clusters here in the winter months.

Military training exercises, which are often more destructive to nature than hostilities, were conducted near or even in protected areas. The most prominent consequences of both the hostilities and military exercises – damage to the landscape and vegetation, and chemical contamination of the soil and groundwater – have a cumulative effect. At the same time, repeated exercises further damage landscapes and vegetation and pollute the soil even more. Areas where military exercises take place often suffer more greatly than combat zones when repeatedly bombarded with polluting ordnance.

More details on the environmental consequences of the militarization of the Crimean Peninsula by Russian occupiers can be found in the report published by the Ukraine War Environmental Consequences Work Group.

Damage to freshwater resources

During his speech at the UN Water Conference, Minister Ruslan Strilets emphasized that Russians are using all possible tools of terror in Ukraine, including depriving Ukrainians of access to water.
As a result of Russian aggression, the following issues have arisen:

• 5 million Ukrainians have no access to drinking water;
• 70% of the population of Ukraine is at risk of water supply disruption;
• discharge of water from the Kakhovka reservoir poses a threat to the cooling systems of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant;
• Ukraine is losing its water infrastructure as a result of regular rocket attacks;
• 88% of Ukraine’s irrigated areas are occupied, and 35% of irrigated areas have been affected by hostilities;
• military actions lead to pollution of surface and underground waters;
• the monetary value of the damage to Ukraine's water resources caused by Russian aggression currently exceeds USD 2.5 billion.

Black and Azov Seas

As a result of the detonation of a Russian sea mine, a summer cottage on the shore of the Black Sea near the village of Sychavka in the Odesa region has been damaged. There were no casualties or injuries. Due to a storm on the Black Sea, the sea mine danger alert was announced in the region.

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