- 2339 crimes against the environment have been documented. - Russian aggression caused damage to Ukraine's environment in the amount of more than $51 billion. - 495 000 hectares of forests are occupied or in the war zone. - 20% environmental protection territories are affected by war. - More than 680,000 tons of oil and fuel have already been burned as a result of Russian shelling. - The number of forest fires during the year covered 330 000 hectares. - At least 30 million tons of CO2 is the total estimate of greenhouse gas emissions, which directly related to the armed aggression of the Russian Federation. - 600 animal species and 750 species of plants and mushrooms, including species from the Red Book, suffered from the war. - Since 24.02.2022, the territories of 900 nature reserves with an area of 1.24 million hectares and 10 national parks have been affected. General information As of February 2023, Russian aggression caused damage to Ukraine's environment in the amount of more than $51 billion, and the state will demand compensation for these losses from the Russian Federation. The implications of damage and toxic contamination from fighting are especially grave given that Ukraine is home to 35 percent of Europe’s biodiversity and around a quarter of the earth’s chernozem, a rich, highly fertile soil type. Hundreds of protected areas are or have been under occupation, including up to 23 national parks and nature and biosphere reserves. The Minister of Environmental Protection and Natural Resources of Ukraine, Ruslan Strilets said that since the beginning of the full-scale war, about 2,300 crimes against the environment have been documented. At least 30 million tons of CO2 is the total estimate of greenhouse gas emissions, which directly related to the armed aggression of the Russian Federation against Ukraine. The main causes of these emissions were forest fires and attacks on energy infrastructure facilities.
According to the estimates of the State Environmental Inspection, more than 680,000 tons of oil and fuel have already been burned as a result of Russian shelling. Strilets emphasised that the war also poisoned a large part of the Ukrainian land and damaged a third of the forests. Thus, damage from soil pollution reached $18 billion, and in many occupied nature reserves and national parks, trees were felled. Russia has reportedly destroyed much of Ukraine’s renewable energy infrastructure, which is concentrated in occupied areas or zones of active conflict. At least 16 Ramsar sites covering 600 thousand hectares - valuable wetland areas that have been internationally recognized according to the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands - are under threat of destruction. They include the expansive shallow marine lagoons and the biggest island of the Black Sea in Karkinitska and Dzharylhatska bays; the Dnipro river delta, a refuge for nature in a region known for its huge agricultural fields; and the bogs, meanders, and natural meadows of the Desna river floodplains in the Sumy region. The explosions caused by Russian war operations disrupt the geological and hydrological properties of the territories, destroy biological resources, cause the extinction of dolphins, destroy ecosystems, pollute soil, and reduce biodiversity. Active shelling, particularly in the spring and summer, has made it impossible to carry out environmental protection measures, such as clearing migration channels. As a result, fish from the sea did not migrate to the estuaries, which destroys bird habitats. About 4,000 hectares of shallow waters, which are very important feeding grounds for migratory waders, have dried up. Throughout the course of the war, Russians also killed more than 6,000,000 farm animals and about 50,000 dolphins. Currently, 495,000 hectares of forests are under occupation and hostilities. More than 2.4 million hectares of forests have already been liberated from occupation by the Armed Forces of Ukraine and need to be restored. However, these areas were severely damaged by burning and trenching. It will take decades to restore them.
Particular cases
Askania-Nova
Askania-Nova is a nature reserve located in Kherson Oblast, Ukraine, within the dry Taurida steppe near Oleshky Sands and active member of the UNESCO Man and the Biosphere Programme. It is also a research institute of the Ukrainian Academy of Agricultural Sciences.
About 600 higher plants (both perennial and annual), 16 species of which were entered to the Red Data Book of Ukraine, have been preserved in their primary natural form. The reserve also hosts ostriches, bison, antelopes, wild horses, llamas, zebras and many bird species. It is known for a herd of Przewalski's horses, the largest group kept in captivity, living on an area around 30 km².
On 23 October 2022, the Russians deployed their military equipment on the territory of the village and the Askania Nova reserve and announced the ‘nationalisation’ of all state property in the occupied territory.
In 2022, the occupiers caused three massive fires on the territory of Askania-Nova, covering a total area of almost 1,400 hectares. In March 2023, due to unknown reasons, 21 hectares of the nature reserve were burned down. Military aircraft constantly fly over the protected area at low altitudes, which causes panic among wildlife and has even led to their deaths.
Photo of animals in Askania before the war
On 20 March 2023, the first deputy head of the presidential administration of the Russian Federation, Sergey Kiriyenko, a Russian protege in the Kherson region, Volodymyr Saldo, and an unknown man appointed by the occupation "Ministry of Natural Resources and Ecology of the Kherson region" as the director of the reserve arrived at the institution.
From open sources, the employees of the reserve learned the "State Autonomous Institution "Askania-Nova Biosphere Reserve" had been registered in Russia. The name of the occupation institution does not contain the name of Friedrich Falz-Fein, the founder of Askania-Nova, unlike the name of the genuine Ukrainian reserve.
07/04/2023: Russian soldiers shared photos in of killed animals from the unique nature reserve Askania-Nova. The Velykyi Luh Park The National Park of Velykyi Luh covers historic steppe terrain in southeast Ukraine. It is on the south bank of the Dnieper River's Kakhovka Reservoir. The meadows and reed beds on the shore support one of the largest transmigration spots for birds in Eastern Europe. The coastal strip of the Kakhovka Reservoir is heavily mined and constantly under fire. The Russian Federation troops are stationed on the Park’s territory where they are carrying out engineering works on their positions. Detonation, shelling and mining of the territory leads to the mechanical destruction of the fauna. Constant explosions pose a huge threat not only to birds (especially during the nesting season), but also destroy animal habitats, their homes, and disturb soil and vegetation cover. The felling of trees causes irreparable damage to the already small areas of forests and forest plantations in the steppe zone of Ukraine, where the Park is located. In the waters of the Kakhovka Reservoir, within the boundaries of the nature reserve fund, with the support of the occupation authorities, poaching of aquatic bioresources is conducted. Taking into account the fact that the fishing is being carried out steadily, including during the spawning season, this will significantly affect the population of the Kakhovka Reservoir's fish fauna.
The Kamianska Sich Park
Kamianska Sich National Park in the Kherson region is a steppe, more than 50 kilometers of the Dnipro coastline, a place of protection for more than 90 species of rare animals. Defense forces of Ukraine liberated the territory of the park on November 11 after 8 months of occupation.
In just eight months of occupation, Russians destroyed the following rare plants in the Kamianska Sich Park, another reserve in Kherson region: Scythian dryk (633 specimens), rough feather grass (402), hairy feather grass (832), Lessing's feather grass (2384), Ukrainian feather grass (456), and others. Some of them are globally threatened with extinction.
Scientific work continued during the occupation. Until the Russians mined the territory of the park before retreating, scientists kept a chronicle of nature, recorded seasonal changes: where birds built new nests, where roe deer migrated, when primroses bloomed, etc.
Currently, the territory of the Park is dangerous due to violations of the Russian military that were discovered after de-occupation, namely total mining and dense contamination of the territory with explosive devices; burnt steppe areas and artificial forest plantations; disturbance of the ground surface due to the dropping of bombs and shells, creation of fortifications (trenches, dugouts, caponiers, etc.) soil contamination with chemicals in areas where military equipment is deployed and in places where shells have exploded; large-scale contamination of the territory with solid waste, especially in places where the Russian military has been stationed for a long time; drainage of coastal ecosystems due to the falling level of the Kakhovka reservoir.
Employees of the Kamianska Sich National Park, together with pyrotechnics, are demining the territory
The Kinburn Spit
The occupiers have turned the Kinburn Spit in Kherson region into a continuous fire. In the first six months of the full-scale war alone, employees of the Sviatoslav Biloberezhzhzhia National Park, which includes the spit, have analysed satellite images and counted an area of 5,200 hectares of fires. However, according to some estimates, the total damage here was up to 10,000 hectares, or about 30% of Kinburn's forests.
"We will never see the spit we saw in 2021, because different types of pine have been planted for decades. But most importantly, many unique natural relict plantations that cannot be restored have been destroyed." In addition, the Russian military forbade Ukrainians to put out fires at gunpoint.
In mid-April 2022, fires started. As of October, more than 10,000 hectares have already burned on the Kinburn Spit due to the actions of the Russians. About half of the available natural areas on the territory of the Mykolaiv part of the spit have been destroyed
Tuzly Estuaries National Nature Park
National Natural Park "Tuzly estuaries" is a chain of 13 estuaries between the Danube and Dnister rivers. Estuaries are called the "birthing house of the Black Sea", because there are huge resources for the reproduction of biological diversity.
Since the beginning of the war, 32 dead dolphins have already been found in part of the Tuzly Estuaries National Nature Park territory. According to scientists’ calculations, since February 24, about 5,000 dolphins have died in the Black Sea. The explosions also harm the birds that fly into the park.
Dolphin skeletons in Tuzly Dzharylhach Its area of 56 square km and length of 42 km make it the Black Sea's biggest sand bank, located at the Karkinit Bay. The unique flora and fauna of Dzharylhach have been well preserved. It is a habitat for wild boars, deer, mouflon, as well as numerous seagulls and cormorant, hunting crabs, raps whelk and shrimp. This lagoon complex is a separate phytogeographical area of the Black Sea, which contains more than 3 million tonnes of plant mass in its shallow waters, which, considering the catastrophic death of phytophthora in recent years, accounts for 50% of all macrophyte reserves in the Black Sea. The large reserves of macrophytes create favourable conditions for the development of fish fauna. The Dzharylhach Bay with the island is primarily a wetland, which was included in the first list of the 22 most important wetlands under the Ramsar Convention on the Conservation of Wetlands of International Importance. The area is also crucially important for the functioning of the transcontinental Asia-Europe genetic and ecological corridor.
In February, the Russians illegally registered ‘Dzharylgatsky’ under Russian law. The occupying "Ministry of Natural Resources and Ecology of the Kherson Region" appointed Serhii Anatoliyovych Stramnov as the so-called ‘director’ of the occupied national park. The registration documents of the fake ‘nature park’ state that its main activity is illegal hunting, catching and shooting wild animals. Also, this ‘institution’ is going to provide services in fishing, clay and salt mining, construction, transportation of passengers by water transport, excursion services and restaurant business. In May 2023, it was reported that Russian armed forces connected the island to mainland with sandy crossing, which was done with the aim of more intensive use of the protected area of the national park for military purposes. In particular, the occupiers set up a military training ground on the island as Russians assumed Dzharylhach was far enough from the range of attack from the Ukrainian military. It was explained that ‘when the island is separated, there is the water circulation, and during storms the water in the bay is completely renewed as there has always been a very strong current in this strait. And if the strait is completely filled up with sand, then there is no circulation, and thus such a large stagnant water zone appears. This is 50,000 hectares, of a shallow bay that warms up a lot’, and as a result this will cause ‘degradation of the ecosystems of the entire gulf, disruption of fish migration processes, which, in particular, are used by wetland birds’. It is estimated that ‘if the occupiers carry out purely military activities, everything in the unique reserve will be destroyed in 1-2 months’. The National Nature Park ‘Pryazovskyi’ The National Nature Park ‘Pryazovskyi’ is the second largest national park of Ukraine, covering the estuaries, coastal plains seaside landforms around the Molochna River estuary the Utlyuksky estuary, on the northwest coast of the Sea of Azov. The area is one of high biodiversity, protecting both steppe and aquatic habitats, and the unique transition zones in between. The wetlands support very large populations of nesting and migratory waterfowl. Nowadays, there is an uncontrolled discharge of sewage and wastewater from the city of Melitopol into the Molochna River, which flows into the Molochny Estuary (a hydrological reserve of national importance), with a daily discharge of about 13 thousand m3. The occupiers have organised a tank training ground in the Melitopol district, where they conduct daily exercises using tanks and heavy artillery, firing at targets located in the waters of the Molochnyi Estuary and at islands in the estuary, about 150 shots are fired daily. This almost completely destroyed the island of Lastochkin Khvist (a protected area of the park), where the Dalmatian Pelican nested (listed in the IUCN Red List, European Red List, Red Book of Ukraine, and protected by the Bonn and Bern Conventions, the CITIES Convention and the AEWA Agreement). A large-scale poaching of Dalmatian Pelican is also carried out.
The Holy Mountains National Nature Park
The Holy Mountains National Nature Park is located along the chalk cliffs and river terraces of the Donets River in Eastern Ukraine. The park's boundaries are a patchwork of forested areas stretching along the banks of the Donets. The Holy Mountains of Ukraine contain many archaeological, natural, historical, and recreational sites, including the Sviatohirsk Lavra monastery.
After the beginning of the Russian Federation's aggression against Ukraine, the Holy Mountains National Nature Park was in the area of active hostilities from March to September 2022. This resulted in 80% of the territory suffering significant losses due to fires and mechanical damage to forests, the destruction of wildlife and water pollution. The material and technical base of the national nature park was also damaged. Artillery fire destroyed a large part of the administrative and work premises, as well as all vehicles, firefighting equipment and work tools.
Currently, stabilisation measures, including demining, are underway in the Holy Mountains National Nature Park, so the examinations and studies will be carried out after their completion.
Holy Mountains before the war
‘Ecocide’ in international law
A very important step towards the clear regulation of the crime of ‘ecocide’ was the adoption by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe of a resolution on the negative impact of war on the environment. This happened on 25 January 2023. In it, PACE members stressed the importance of defining the concept of ecocide in both national legislation and international law. The resolution recognises the need to amend the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court and add ecocide as a new crime. If these changes are introduced, Ukraine will be able to sue Russia in the ICC for crimes against the environment, such as destroyed ecosystems, contaminated soil, burned forests, etc.
The world already has a precedent for punishing an aggressor for environmental damage. In the spring of 1991, the UN Compensation Commission was established to consider all claims for compensation for losses and damages caused to Kuwait as a result of the Iraqi military invasion and occupation. A separate area of the Commission's work was the consideration of claims for compensation for environmental damage in the amount of $80 billion. As a result of its work, the Commission partially satisfied these claims, paying just over $5 billion dollars.
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