Despite Global Sustainability Awareness,

Russia Inflicts Toxic Pollution on Ukraine

In September 2015, 193 member-states of the United Nations, including Ukraine, the United States and Russia, adopted the Sustainable Development Goals – otherwise known as Agenda 2030 for Sustainable Development – that committed the signatories to respect the environment in hopes of improving life on Earth.

Earlier, in February 2014, Russia launched the world’s latest war by first invading and occupying Crimea and later that spring the eastern oblasts of Donbas and Luhansk.

In the ensuing years, in addition to human casualties, Russia’s war against Ukraine has destroyed eastern Ukraine’s bio-diverse geography. In springtime, several species of feather, sheep fescue and blue grass as well as forget-me-nots, and yellow cress, have been known to blossom on its steppes. The region is also recognized for a wealth of mineral resources, including deposits of rock salt, gypsum, raw cement materials, flux limestone, and dolomite as well as granite and clays.

However, according to the United Nations, today the region’s ecological purity has been greatly tarnished.

In addition to toxic waste from nearly two centuries of intensive coal mining, and chemical and metal industries accumulated in its soils, the ongoing Russo-Ukraine War of 2014-18 – one of the bloodiest in Europe since the 1990s Balkans wars – has added another layer of significant and partially irreversible damage to local ecosystems, the UN concluded.

In 2013, the region hosted 5,500 industries which produced 4.3 million tons – equivalent to 44% of the country’s emissions. Due to destruction of production infrastructure and emergency mechanisms, environmental degradation risks have significantly increased. The UN said the damage doesn’t stop there: the northern Donets River has been the most polluted river in Ukraine since before the conflict. It condition has recently worsened.

Pollution of the 650-mile long waterway, generated by the conflict, continues to pose health risks for the population living along the Don, for whom the river is the main source of water. Suspension of farming gave weeds and rodent mice space to thrive and reproduce, further endangering public health.

“Donbas is on the precipice of an ecological catastrophe fueled by air, soil and water pollution from the combustion of large amounts of ammunition in the fighting and flooding at industrial plants. There is an urgent need for ecological monitoring to assess and minimize the environmental risks arising from the armed conflict,” said UN Environment Program Analyst Dr. Leila Urekenova.

Due to the war, institutions which protect nature reserves have suffered from a loss of staff. This has led to an increase in environmental law crimes, massive poaching, illegal logging and the disruption of waste management operations. Invasive species such as jackal, sunfish and the Asian lady beetle have also expanded and colonized the conflict zone and adjacent areas.

The forests in the Donetsk and Luhansk provinces have played a crucial role in the natural and man-made landscapes by preventing wind and water erosion and ensuring the stability of water supply bodies. In addition to creating a favorable environment for the local fauna and flora, the region’s massive pine forests played a key social and economic role, as they are often used for recreation, hunting, and mushrooms, berries, and herbs picking. The war has destroyed these natural activities.

According to an assessment carried out by UN Environment’s Science-Policy Platform on Environment and Security, the conflict has affected, damaged, or destroyed ecosystems within an area of at least 530,000 hectares (1,309,658.52 acres), including 18 nature reserves covering an area of 80,000 hectares (197,684.31 acres). Furthermore, 150,000 hectares (370,658.07 acres) of forests have been impacted, with 12,500 forest fires blazing through the military operations zone and adjacent areas.

The UN said in 2014 alone, the lack of forest protection and the fighting led to the near irreversible destruction of 479 hectares (1,183.63 acres) of forests. The fighting has had direct mechanical and chemical impacts on trees, including shrapnel damage of barks, branches, tops, ground vegetation, weakening or killing individual trees and entire plantations. The war zone has also been contaminated by unexploded ordnance whose elimination could take years or decades, based on the experience of other countries such as Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia and Macedonia.

US Special Representative for Ukraine Negotiations Kurt Volker tweeted that Russia is attempting to conceal its humanitarian and economic catastrophe in eastern Ukraine. “Russia and its forces routinely block [the] OSCE SMM in violation of its commitments. Russia doesn’t want [the] world to see that it has created a humanitarian, economic, & ecological disaster in Donbas. It’s time for peace for Ukraine,” he tweeted on August 7.

Long after the towns, building, homes, schools and churches have been rebuilt; long after the dead have been buried; and long after the wounds have healed, Ukrainians in eastern Ukraine will continue to live with contaminated land. Farms will not be arable, food will not be produced, forests will not protect the environment, and waterways will be incapable of irrigating the region and providing water for the population.

The best place to raise this Russian environmental crime against Ukraine is the United Nations, which has acknowledged Russia’s aggression against Ukraine. Ukrainian, x-captive nations and sustainability-related NGOs at the UN must prepare documents and declarations condemning Russia for destroying Ukraine’s ecology and demanding global remedies. The upcoming 73^rd UN General Assembly and the 67^th UN Department of Public Information / Non-Governmental Organizations Conference offer a wide range of opportunities to do so.