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

Since February 24, 2022, 2.364 cases of damage to the Ukrainian environment as a result of Russian military aggression have been recorded, with losses estimated at USD 52.4 billion. Due to Russia's large-scale invasion of Ukraine, approximately 600 species of animals and 750 species of plants and fungi are at risk of extinction.

This was emphasized by Yevheniy Fedorenko, the Deputy Minister of Environment and Natural Resources of Ukraine, during a meeting of the Economic Affairs, Science, Technology and Environment Committee of the OSCE PA.

Ukraine’s Ministry of Environmental Protection and the Office of the Prosecutor General of Ukraine are working to hold Russian invaders accountable for the damage to the Ukrainian environment. This was reported by Minister Ruslan Strilets at the Ukrainian national telethon.

On April 18-19, the 70th session of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) was held in Geneva, dedicated to digital and green transformations for sustainable development in Europe. On April 18, Minister Ruslan Strilets spoke online at the high-level dialogue. Sergiy Vlasenko, the Deputy Minister for Digital Development, Digital Transformations, and Digitalization, participated in the 70th UNECE session in person.

At the initiative of Ukraine and its international partners, participants of the 70th UNECE session approved a resolution "Economic and Social Effects of Russia’s Aggression Against Ukraine". Representatives from 40 countries out of 56 present at the session voted in favor of the resolution. Participants in the session deplored Russian aggression and Belarus’ complicity and confirmed the previous UNECE decisions that the aggressor country cannot nominate its representatives to leadership positions in the Commission or propose motions for voting. The UNECE Secretariat will continue assist Ukraine in addressing the economic, environmental, infrastructure, energy, and social consequences of Russian aggression.

Nuclear and radiation safety threats

According to Energoatom, Europe's largest nuclear facility - the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant - continues to suffer from the aggression of Russian military forces and their proxies, while Ukrainian personnel desperately try to maintain nuclear and radiation safety for the sake of the entire continent.

Russian occupiers continue to transform the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant into a military base, mining the perimeter around the plant. On April 13, an explosion occurred near the machine hall of the 4th power unit. The nuclear terrorists acknowledged that their mine had detonated. Ukrainian employees of the plant heard the sound of the explosion, but Russian forces tried to "calm" them and quickly cover up the traces of an explosion from the IAEA experts.

As a result of the Russian armed aggression, the property and infrastructure of the temporarily occupied Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant and other subdivisions of Energoatom were damaged or destroyed. According to preliminary estimates, the assessed losses have already reached UAH 32 billion. Energoatom will seek compensation from Russia for the losses caused by military aggression.

According to Ukraine’s State Nuclear Regulatory Inspectorate, unannounced inspections by the IAEA were carried out at the Rivne and Khmelnytskyi Nuclear Power Plants under the Agreement between Ukraine and the IAEA on the application of safeguards in connection with the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons. The agency inspectors, with the participation of specialists from the State Nuclear Regulatory Authority, verified the absence of undeclared nuclear material at the plants and found no issues with Ukrainian nuclear power plants.

Recent attacks on infrastructure and industrial sites

On 13 April, Russian terrorists launched 280 strikes on the Kherson region. Shells hit residential areas, an educational institution in the village of Zmiivka, and a park area in Kherson. Two people died as a result of the shelling.

On 14 April, Russian forces:

• launched a missile strike on Sloviansk in the Donetsk region. 5 multi-storey buildings, 5 private houses, a store, and a business center were damaged. 15 civilians were killed, including a 2-year-old child.
• struck with guided bombs on the settlements near the Russian border in the Chernihiv region, hitting an industrial enterprise and damaging buildings.
• shelled Vovchansk in the Kharkiv region, damaging a medical facility.

On Easter Sunday, 16 April, the enemy launched a massive attack - Russian occupiers carried out 25 missile strikes on civilian targets:

• a local church was damaged in Komyshivka, the Zaporizhzhia region.
• 2 teenagers were killed as a result of shelling in the Snihurivka community, the Mykolaiv region.
• heavy artillery struck the temple in Nikopol. Five residential buildings and four utility buildings were also damaged in the city.

On 17 April:

• Russians attacked an industrial infrastructure facility in the Snihurivka community with strike drones;
• the Russian military shelled Sloviansk with S-300 missiles and kamikaze drones. Five multi-storey buildings and seven private houses were damaged;
• an agricultural enterprise in Novoukrainka, the Donetsk region, was damaged by shelling.

On 18 April, the Russians:

• shelled a market in Kherson, killing one person and injuring nine others.
• shelled Orikhiv in the Zaporizhzhia region three times with incendiary shells;
• launched an airstrike on Vovchansk, damaging two residential buildings, utility buildings, and a market. A large fire broke out, and about 60 market stalls were burned.

On 19 April, Russian forces attacked a resort facility in the Odesa region with drones. Emergency services promptly extinguished the fire.

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 April 19, 2023, 348,013 explosive objects, including 2,207 aircraft bombs, were neutralized in Ukraine. An area of 827.6 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.

Damage to natural reserves and protected ecosystems

After its invasion of Ukraine, Russia is looting the occupied territories, stealing not only grain but also timber from local forests, The Wall Street Journal reports.

The forests are being cut down for sale or to strengthen defensive positions. The media outlet has released images from the aerospace company Maxar Technologies, which confirm the illegal logging. Ukraine’s State Forest Agency confirmed that it had discovered examples of illegal logging in the Kyiv region and the northern areas of the Sumy and Kharkiv regions, which Russia occupied at the beginning of the invasion. Among the logged trees were oak, pine, hornbeam, and ash. The agency stated that it was difficult to determine the exact scale of illegal logging in the liberated parts of the country, as the forests are contaminated with mines and explosives.

During the war, wildfires are collateral damages in the active combat zone around the line of contact. Starting from the end of February 2022, the regional branch of the Freiburg-based Global Fire Monitoring Center (GFMC) and the Regional Eastern Europe Fire Monitoring Center (REEFMC) based in Kyiv are monitoring the situation 24/7.

This map shows the locations of wildfires and agricultural burning in 2022. The REEFMC utilized two sources of remote sensing data to detect fires and map burned areas. The ORORA wildfire monitoring technology was used to identify ignitions. It combines different fire detection approaches provided by more than 20 satellites for a daily identification of fire locations.

The total area of landscape fires in Ukraine during 2022 reached 755 600 ha. REEFMC revealed the following types of landscapes that were mostly affected by fires: croplands (419 300 ha), forests (56 700 ha), and abandoned lands (273 900 ha).

In total, about 20 000 fires were detected in 2022. Most (50.3 %) were burned within a 60-km buffer zone built along a daily front line, while 42.3 % of all fires occurred in occupied territories. The largest areas affected by fires were in the Donetsk (145 900 ha), Kherson (84 100 ha), Kyiv (70 800 ha), Zaporizhzhia (65 400 ha), Luhansk (65 300 ha), Mykolaiv (47 800), and Kharkiv regions (42 500 ha).

Damage to freshwater resources

The Kherson region is located within the basins of the Dnipro River, the Ingulets River, and the rivers of the Black Sea region. The region has an extensive infrastructure for transporting water and irrigation systems, fed by water from the Kakhovka Reservoir. The functioning of these systems affects the water situation in other regions. For example, the Kakhovka main canal supplies water to the arid areas of the Kherson region and to the Western Group water supply system, which provides water to the city of Berdiansk. The Dnipro-Mykolaiv canal provides the city of Mykolaiv with drinking water, which, after treatment, has an acceptable quality. The temporary occupation of the region allowed Russian aggressors to gain control over or destroy the infrastructure that provides a significant portion of water supply to adjacent regions.

As a result of the military and terrorist actions of Russian occupiers, a significant number of settlements in the region have been deprived of centralized water supply, and people are forced to use untreated water from the Dnipro river or other available sources. Critical infrastructure in many communities has been destroyed or damaged to such an extent that makes it impossible or greatly reduces its service life. Despite the fact that the region is relatively well supplied with groundwater, wells in many settlements depend on electricity to function.

The damaged hydraulic structures of the Kakhovka main canal and the Kakhovka hydro junction remain under the control of the occupiers. It is impossible to obtain reliable information about the situation in the occupied communities. The EPL NGO’s report provides more detailed information on the destruction of water supply and drainage infrastructure in the Kherson region.

Black and Azov Seas

As reported by the Ministry of Environmental Protection, Russians continue to destroy the unique nature of the Ukrainian Azov Sea region.

Animals have been killed, and preserved areas have been burned, plowed, and turned into shooting ranges and tank training grounds. This is the new reality for the pearl of southern Ukraine - the Azov National Park, that has been under Russian occupation for over a year. The nesting grounds of the Dalmatian pelican (a protected species under the Bonn and Bern Conventions, the CITES Convention, and the AEWA Agreement), have been almost completely destroyed.

The coast of the Molochny estuary and its islands have been turned into a tank training ground and shooting range. The "Fedotova Spit" landscape reserve has become a site of deer killings. In the "Zaplava of River Berda" landscape reserve, vast areas of reeds have been burned, and almost 5 tons of fish are caught daily from the Molochna River, which continues to be polluted by the sewage of Melitopol city.

In the occupied city of Mariupol, dead dolphins have been spotted on the beach. On April 18, the Mariupol City Council reported this, citing videos from local residents. According to the Mariupol City Council, Russian occupiers have begun to build a dam across the Kalchik River using slag. The entry of slag into the water could cause fish to die in the river. Previously, the occupiers had filled the Kalmius River with garbage in an attempt to "restore" the destroyed bridge. The flow of the river has decreased several times. And in the Zintseva Balka, sewage is being discharged into the stream that flows into the Sea of Azov.

During the 41st meeting of the Commission on the Protection of the Black Sea, a governing body of the Bucharest Convention, Deputy Minister Oleksandr Krasnolutskyi emphasized that Ukraine would not support any processes within the Commission as long as one of its parties is the terrorist state of Russia.

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