Russia Creates another Ecological Catastrophe in Ukraine

War – hybrid or not – wreaks havoc on the lives of people. Sometimes it seems the dead have escaped the worse. Not only are soldiers killed and maimed, but civilians also bear brunt of invader’s killing machine. Cities, villages and country sides are covered with dead bodies, and buildings, schools and homes are destroyed or converted into useless testimonies of enemy aggression.

And then there is the ecological destruction of war. The Russo-Ukraine War of 2014-18 has been raging in eastern Ukraine for more than four years and its toll on the environment is becoming devastatingly apparent.

Ukrainian network Hromadske TV has prepared a documentary about this subject, in which it shows sinkholes in Donetsk and nearby towns, rivers laced with nitrogen and heavy metals, contaminated drinking water, and risk of disease. The TV news station says all of this may happen in Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region in the next five to 15 years.
“Donbas is the world’s most industrialized region and currently a warzone. Wide swaths of the region, formerly a center of mining and industry, are now occupied by Russia-led separatists. Over a million people have already been displaced by the war in Ukraine. If this ecological catastrophe comes to pass, at least 2.5 million more could be forced to flee both Ukrainian government-controlled and separatist-held territories,” Hromadske reported.

Russia has not decreased the intensity of its never-ending war against Ukraine. Quite the opposite, it has expanded it in order to bring the nation to its knees and subjugate it once again. Aggression, invasion, occupation, subjugation, repression, persecution, imprisonment, Russification and Chornobyl have been the hallmarks of its centuries-long campaign against Ukraine. And now – ecological contamination.
Russia has facetiously signed a host of international agreements, including the UN Charter, which it mocks by violating its principles. Now add to that trough of broken agreements the UN Sustainable Development Goals that are intended to improve life on this planet.

UN member-states agreed to abide by the tenets of the goals while Russia has premeditatedly chosen to violate them and endanger the lives of Ukrainians as well as the natural environment in eastern Ukraine.
“And the ecological crisis bearing down on eastern Ukraine could have significant implications for Russia and the broader Azov and Black Sea region,” Hromadske TV said.
This special documentary by Hromadske presents scientists’ scenarios of how ecological disaster could unfold in the Donbas. It also articulates ways this catastrophe can be prevented. The television network pointed out that its goal is not to scare, but to warn the public about the potential consequences if the world does not act now.

It’s not only about Ukraine and Donbas. As the recently found 131-year-old message in a bottle testified, we are all connected across miles and generations.

Protests this Russian crime against humanity must be addressed to the appropriate United Nations and European Union offices.

You can view the documentary here: https://en.hromadske.ua/special/exclusion_zone_donbass