Measuring the environmental impact of the invasion is tricky. But even the fragmented data available paint a grim picture
Save time by listening to our audio articles as you multitaskForests ravaged by fires caused by relentless shelling, or cut down to build trenches; groundwater and soil contaminated by heavy metals and toxic chemicals from detonated munitions; and wild animals killed or driven from their habitat: these are some of the less talked-about victims of the war in Ukraine.
Since the start of the war, Ukraine’s environment ministry has recorded almost 2,300 instances of environmental damage caused by the fighting. About 2.9m hectares of the country’s protected areas, home to thousands of species of plants and animals, are at risk of destruction, the ministry estimates. Another 3m hectares of forests, about a third of the total, have been affected by the fighting already. Of these, at least 23,300 hectares have completely burned down.
So far, the combined damage already amounts to more than $46bn, which Ukraine will in time demand as war reparations from Russia, according to Ruslan Strilets, the Ukrainian environment minister. Air pollution, at $27bn, accounts for the bulk of the sum. In only ten months, over 42m tonnes of carbon dioxide, roughly the same as the annual emissions of Bulgaria, have been released into the atmosphere as a result of the war, the ministry says.
The war has poisoned large areas of Ukrainian farmland. Dangerous chemicals and fuels, released from exploded rockets and the tens of thousands of artillery shells that are being fired by both sides every day, have leaked into the ground along the length of the front line. Such contamination can harm local ecosystems and crops decades after the guns have gone quiet, says Olexiy Angurets, the author of an upcoming report on the war’s impact on the environment.
Ukraine’s environmental record was hardly stellar before Russia invaded. The country ranked 52nd in last year’s Environmental Performance Index, a measure compiled by experts at Yale and Columbia universities. Post-war reconstruction may offer a unique chance for improvement. “What we’re afraid of is that recovery will be just a few green projects here and there,” says Tetiana Riabokin of the World Wildlife Fund.
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