Nature – thanks to its forces – appears to be a powerful, almost self-centered being, to which military planners should approach with due respect. specified perception of matters is justified by all means, which does not change the fact that this "olbrey" besides has a fragile face.
Ruins bombed by Russians in the city of Bachmut in the Donetsk Oblast, October 2024. photograph Stanislavskyi/Shutterstock
In the common image, war is the death and suffering of people, in the dimension of material demolition to the foreground, resulting in losses in residential and industrial infrastructure. We frequently miss the fact that animals are besides killed in war, whether deliberately killed or dying due to adverse conditions generated by a warlord. Even little attention is paid to the impact of armed action on the widely understood flora, especially in the long, post-war perspective. The residents of the Pas-de-Calais department in France – where dense positional fighting took place in 1914–1918 – until now they cannot cultivate extended areas of land due to polluted soil. The same applies to agricultural land in the distant area Belgian Ypres. Scientists estimation that 2,000 tons of copper are inactive in the vicinity of the city.
Millions of tons of pollution
Let's go back to modern times and decision to the east edge of the continent. erstwhile in the second week of March 2022 the air quality was tested in Kiev, around which invaders attempted to tighten the siege ring, the probes showed contamination concentrations 27 times higher than normal. Bomb and rocket explosions release dense metallic particles (such as lead, mercury, depleted uranium), formaldehydes, nitrous oxide, cyanide. Released chemicals oxidize in the air, leading to acid rain, for example. Contaminants carry wind and surface and groundwater, so they can yet get much further than the scope of military action. At the end of 2022, the Ukrainian Chamber of Auditors determined the amount of hazardous substances emitted into the atmosphere at 67 million tonnes, counting from the date of the invasion. In the 2 erstwhile years, this indicator was 2,2 million tonnes per year.
There are more than 70 000 species of flora and fauna in Ukraine, which represents more than 35% of Europe's biodiversity. The country – with its immense area of fertile black earth – was until the invasion 1 of the planet leaders in grain production and export. In turn in the east of Ukraine – in Donbasa – there is simply a highly industrialized zone. There are nearly a 1000 production centres, including mines, refineries, steel mills and chemical plants. As estimated by the British organization The Conflict and Environment Observatory, 10 million tonnes of toxic waste (including post-flotation) are stored in the region. Explosions in specified an environment origin an additional hazard of pollution air, water and soil. An example of this is the attack on the oil refinery in Lysichansk in May 2022, which caused 50,000 tons of oil sludge to ignite. The fire besides included 2 oil tanks (20,000 tons each) and a sulphur warehouse. Only by the mediate of 2022 60 fires occurred in Ukrainian refineries. any of them were the consequence of raids, any of them the consequence of direct combat.
The effects of fighting the usage of armored troops and mechanized infantry are, apart from wrecks, besides a mass of fuel and lubricants released into Ukrainian soil. photograph vladk213/Adobe Stock
The war in Ukraine translated into alarming statistics. By the end of 2022, 174,000 km2 of land had been "contaminated" with mines and unexploded land. Later, due to the deficiency of serious Russian progress, the area grew only somewhat and about equivalent to Cambodian size and more than half of Poland's surface area. According to experts, demining specified an area is simply a challenge for years that nature cannot do for humans. The spontaneous degradation of ammunition – depending, among others, on dirt pH – is simply a process for 100–300 years, thus covering several, respective generations, and these cannot live in danger. And it's not just war junk that's the problem. The effects of combating the usage of armoured troops and mechanized infantry are besides a mass of fuel and lubricants released into the ground. Yes, the heavy-duty vehicle traffic itself damages the black earth, causing it to grind and glue. The sound scares distant tiny animals, specified as earthworms, liable for mixing and aeration of soil, the broken plant cover does not defend against contamination penetration. It takes 4 to 5 years for specified an experienced black man to regain his full strength.
The Miracles of Nature on the Front Line
By mid-2024 As a consequence of the war suffered More than 3 million hectares of forest, which represents almost a 3rd of the state's forest resources. Ukrainian national parks and reserves are part of the European Emerald Network (Emerald, or network of protected areas of peculiar importance), which is home to many endangered species. In the war region there were over a 3rd of all protected areas in Ukraine – 1.24 million hectares. In the National Natural Park, the large Lake Russian tanks ran over spring saffrons, covered by a safety program for 16 years. Meotyda Nature Park close Mariupola, which is simply a habitat and breeding ground, among others, of the Dalmatian pelican and eagle seagull.
The war besides thinned down the livestock population. Only in the first year of the conflict was a 4th of over 3.5 million cattle and 5.7 million pigs. Incalculable are losses among home animals – cats and dogs. any of them were evacuated from threatened areas along with owners, but most remained in the war zone. Losses in the environment at the end of 2022 – those that managed to number – the Chamber of Auditors estimated at 1.35 trillion hryvnia (162 billion PLN). “In June 2025, the Ministry of Environmental Protection and Natural Resources of Ukraine estimated that environmental losses resulting from the Russian invasion amounted to EUR 85 billion,” says Dr. Jakub Olchowski of the Institute of Central Europe, assistant prof. at the Institute of global Relations at Maria Curie-Skłodowska University in Lublin. This is the equivalent of over PLN 360 billion, and we must remember that the estimation of full environmental harm caused Ukraine will be possible only erstwhile the war is over. The process of rebirth will take at least 15 years.
"The large-scale warfare of the industrial era inevitably leads to environmental degradation," says Dr. Olchowski. – But Russia is allowed to destruct the environment besides with premeditation, as part of the full war. The aim is to break the morale of defenders, which, of course, is to attack civilian infrastructure, but besides to attack arable fields and forests or make ecological threats. These actions lead to humanitarian disasters and hit not only the welfare of the population, but besides the economy of Ukraine, for which agriculture is 1 of the key departments of the national economy – he explains.
It will only be possible to estimation the full environmental harm caused in Ukraine erstwhile the war is over. And the process of rebirth will take at least 15 years. In the photo, the skinny dogs among the ruins. photograph Vera/Adobe Stock
As well as genocide
Will individual pay for this? For many years there has been a debate in the global legal community on the request to penalise the death. This wording, referring to serious crimes against ecosystems and the environment, was first publically utilized by Swedish Prime Minister Olof Palmi at the 1972 United Nations Stockholm Conference. – The subject came back in 1991 erstwhile Saddam Hussein's soldiers set fire to Kuwaiti oil windows, and in the latest installment in 2023, after the Russians blew up the dam in Nowa Kachowce," says Dr. Piotr Łubiński of the Institute of Political Sciences and global Relations of the Jagiellonian University in Krakow. In the second case, hundreds of thousands of hectares of the most fertile Ukrainian soils were contaminated. The flood wave passed through the cemeteries, polluted the intake of drinking water with municipal sewers, dead animals, home elements, as well as engine oil that leaked from the blocks of the destroyed power plant, says a specialist in global humanitarian law.
Supporters of the Penalisation of Excidents request that they qualify as a crime covered by the jurisdiction of the global Criminal Court (ICC). This 1 can only prosecute for 4 crimes: genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes and aggression (to another state). According to Dr. Łubiński, present there are fewer chances of a cross-state compromise that would let changes to, for example, the Geneva Conventions or the Statute of the ICC. “But Ukraine can prosecute perpetrators under its own national law,” adds a specialist.
According to Dr. Jakub Olchowski, so far the Russians have committed around 8,000 crimes against the environment – so many criminal cases were registered by the Ukrainian judiciary. This means that from the beginning of the full-scale invasion, there are on average 7 crimes a day. “The deliberate demolition of Ukraine’s natural resources is besides cultural,” Olchowski emphasised. – In Russia nature is not a value worthy of protection. Like human life, he concludes. He's hard to disagree with. Intentionally burning forests and their livestock and sending their own soldiers to continuous “meat storms” are 2 faces of the same phenomenon. The obverse and the reverse of the same contempt for nature...
