Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine caused not only huge human losses and the destruction of civilian infrastructure, but also provoked a number of man-made and environmental challenges. The war has already become the biggest ecological disaster in Ukraine, the consequences of which are still difficult to assess, but already now it is obvious that they are significant. Missiles shot down, equipment destroyed, oil depots burned — all this leads to contamination of groundwater with fuel, carcinogenics, which has negative impact on the environment.
In particular, in Ukraine, about 30 % of the territory is mined to varying degrees: this is twice the area of Austria. Mined territories’ area increased 10 times compared to the situation before February 24. Several dozen coalmines were flooded in the territory of Donetsk and Luhansk regions due to hostilities and improper operation of the equipment. In particular, flooding in some areas has reached such a level that it is not considered possible to resume operation of the coalmines.
A poultry farm was destroyed and looted by the hands of the Russian occupiers in the territory of the Kherson region, near Chornobaivka. Then about 4.4 million chickens died of thirst and hunger. The death of such a large number of birds without the possibility of its disposal is an extraordinary event, in fact an ecological disaster. In this regard, this issue became so critical that it was raised separately at the UN General Assembly.
Since August 5, Russia has been continuously shelling the Zaporizhzhia NPP — the largest nuclear power plant in Europe. This is done in order to force the West and Ukraine to sit down at the negotiating table on the Kremlin’s terms. For this purpose, Putin exposes more than 1 billion people to a nuclear threat.
More than 500,000 hectares of forests were damaged as a result of the Russian invasion of the northern regions of Ukraine in February 2022, and futher hostilities, fires, minefields. Forests in Chernihiv Oblast and Sumy Oblast were particularly affected.
Unfortunately, the list of harm caused to the Ukrainian ecosystem can be continued for a long time. The Russian army has turned out to be asymmetrically weak, and this makes Putin to fight with terrorist methods. He is scaling nuclear and environmental threats that affect not only Ukraine, but also European countries.
Russia should be recognized as a terrorist state at the level of the parliaments of Western countries, and all its political and economic initiatives in the international arena should be boycotted. The Kremlin must be completely isolated and systematically weakened: this is the only way to neutralize Putin’s threat, including an ecological one, which is a common problem for the entire civilized world.