environment

Environmental recovery of Ukraine: Assessing damages and forming solutions

Assessing damages: A case study of Ukraine during the period of February 2022 - May 2023
This article is a summary of Chapter 1.2 and Chapter 2.1.3 of the Master Thesis “Environmental Recovery in Ukraine: Assessing Damages and Forming Solutions” discussed on 12 December 2023 under the supervision of Professor Alberto Lanzavecchia. Following the overall framework of the SDGs set by 2030 and the scenarios forecasted by IPCC (2023), we realise that we are falling behind on the progress expected by 2024. Even the most “developed” countries that lead those discussions, with a far wider spectrum of resources and tools available, still fail to achieve the NDCs that they set ahead of the annual COP conferences. What is to be expected from the “developing” countries in that case? This Master thesis focused on the country showcasing the “other”, ever-growing part of the world - the one affected by the wars, military conflicts, economic instability, climate disasters and other extreme events - Ukraine. Ukraine is being presented as an important case study to understand the tools and methodologies that could be applied in the more extreme cases when it comes to environmental restoration and ecosystem recovery. Those two subjects are emerging in response to the concerns in many countries worldwide related to climate change and the subsequent occurrence of extreme weather events, environmental degradation, and soil deterioration due to heavy industrial pollution. They suggest that one of the answers to the question “What is there to do?” is that we need to make sure to preserve what is left untouched and restore what was destroyed.
"Донбас - це Україна" Boundless fields of wheat in the east of Ukraine
© Polina Rytova

Index

Introduction: Environmental Degradation

Environmental degradation, a global predicament, emerges as a product of climate change and the relentless exploitation of natural resources, exacerbated by widespread environmental pollution, largely propelled by the tenets of contemporary capitalist production and intensive human-led activities. By the dictionary definition, “environmental damage or degradation is the deterioration of the environment through depletion of resources such as air, water and soil; the destruction of ecosystems and the extinction of wildlife; it is defined as any change or disturbance to the environment perceived to be deleterious or undesirable.” The main drivers for environmental degradation in peaceful times can be: urbanisation, population growth, economic growth, intensification of agriculture, increase in energy use, increase in transportation, etc. In the case of Ukraine, which is currently being affected by the russian full-scale invasion that started in February 2022, military-led action is a main driver of the environmental damages and subsequent environmental degradation suffered.

Case study: Assessing damages to the environment caused by the russian war in Ukraine

In the previously studied period of February 2022 - May 2023, by the end of May 2023, the Ministry of Environmental Protection and Natural Resources of Ukraine has publicly displayed to have recorded nearly 2 412 cases of environmental damage caused by the military action in the course of the russian invasion, their consequences resulting in estimated overall damage to the environment equal to 1 966 billion UAH (approx. over 43 billion EUR[1]). The damage to the air was estimated to be worth 994 352 billion UAH total (approx. 22 billion EUR), of which 50 653 million UAH (approx. 1 million EUR) of damage has been caused by fuel fires, 938 028 million UAH of loss (approx. 20 million EUR) as a result of wildfires and 5 644 million UAH (approx. 125 thousand EUR) as a result of ignition of other objects.

Reference image: Screenshot of the “EcoZagroza” real-time dashboard from 30 May 2023, for the period 24.02.2022 - 30.05.2023.

 

Another important sub-component of the damage caused to the environment of Ukraine is damage to the soils, which was estimated to be 12 billion UAH (approx. 266 million EUR), the result of spillage of 31 486 tons of oil products and 2 000 m³ of other poisonous substances leaking into the soils; in addition to the 19 billion UAH damage to the water resources (approximately 422 million EUR), with 2 tons of spillage of oil products into water, as well as 3350 m³ of other poisonous substances. Damage to the forests was estimated to be 224 million UAH (approximately 5 million EUR), reporting 13547 hectares of fire in forest plantations, 7948 hectares of mass deforestation or felling of the forest, in addition to 480 hectares of negative impact on the nature reserve fund of Ukraine.

By the 7th of November 2024, the same source - the Ministry of Environmental Protection and Natural Resources of Ukraine, had reported 6494 cases for the period 24.02.2022 - 07.11.2024 (+4082 cases in 1,5 years) and estimated the consequences of military actions and impact on the environment of Ukraine to be 2 696 billion UAH, (almost 60 billion EUR), which demonstrates continuous dynamic of increase of the environmental damages in the past 1,5 years.

Reference image: Screenshot of the “EcoZagroza” real-time dashboard for the period 24.02.2022 - 07.11.2024.

 

The methodology behind the numbers of the damage reported on the web platform “EcoZagroza” of the Ministry of Environmental Protection and Natural Resources of Ukraine is based on the current legislation acts which have been in force since 13.04.2022, 04.04.2022, 21.07.2024, 19.08.2022, 15.09.2022, 05.10.2022 and 13.10.2022, and are being applied by the State Environmental Inspectorate of Ukraine when reviewing the registered cases. Within the previously observed period and in comparison to the current numbers we can see certain incoherences, such as changes to the overall air damage value (that seemed to have decreased, which is highly improbable). This could be due to the fact that governmental portal numbers are based on the inquiries and inputs sent by the citizens, and after the internal verification, the numbers could have decreased or certain previously reported cases of air pollution could have been moved to another subcategory (ex: soil pollution). Overall, the rest of the numbers are coherent with a general tendency to increase the number of reported damages, as warfare is still ongoing.

To provide an alternative point of view, below is a demonstration of alternative numbers of the cases of environmental damages reported by a local actor in the field that has a different methodology for accounting the cases - Civil Society Organisation “Center for Environmental Initiatives Ecoaction”. For the first period of 24.02.2022 - 30.05.2023, they accounted for 1083 cases of environmental damage across Ukraine.

Reference image: Screenshot of the “Center for Environmental Initiatives Ecoaction” real-time Interactive map for the period 24.02.2022 - 30.05.2023.

 

Including the latest period recorded, which would be 24.02.2022 - 27.08.2024, the overall number of cases is estimated to be 1814 (+731 cases in 1,5 years).

Reference image: Screenshot of the “Center for Environmental Initiatives Ecoaction” real-time Interactive map for the period 24.02.2022 - 27.08.2024.

 

In the current state of the limited data accessibility during the war, which is scarce publicly and is mainly restricted to governmental officials, the Civil Society Organisation “Center for Environmental Initiatives Ecoaction” has developed its own internal methodology for registering potential environmental damage cases: “Since the intensity of potential environmental damage is different in all cases, Ecoaction has also introduced a ranking of cases where 1 - a hazardous facility was hit without direct environmental impact or insufficient information about the consequences of the russian attack; 2 - there is minor and/or local environmental damage; 3 - there is significant environmental damage and sufficient data on it.” They specify that all the data displayed on the page is a collection of information from open sources, media and official government reports that is regularly collected by the organisation’s workers and volunteers. Therefore, their numbers are smaller than the official governmental reports. However, their independent assessment helps to establish a certain minimum number of the reported environmental damage cases, while official governmental cases reported could be closer to the real registered number.

It’s important to acknowledge that all the mentioned data is indicative and precise numbers will only be known after the end of the hostilities, as well as the real consequences of the damages caused will only be discovered in the years following the end of the war. 

Still, despite following this economic approach of estimating the damages (accounting for the vehicles destroyed, the types of weapons used and destroyed, infrastructure destroyed, km2 of the land polluted, etc), the numbers are already shockingly high. This signals an urgent need to start searching for sustainable solutions that will support local actors and ecosystems’ recovery from the atrocities and pollution caused by the russian war. It is also very important in the dimensions of the recovery for future generations, exacerbated climate change and shrinking hope of achieving the IPCC positive (Limiting warming to 1.5°C and 2°C) scenarios.
 


[1] All approximate sums in EUR are modified in the accordance with the current official UAH-EUR exchange rate as on 7th of November 2024, published by the Ministry of Finances of Ukraine at https://minfin.com.ua/ua/currency/eur/

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environment research Ukraine

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International Joint PhD Programme Human Rights Academic Voice