Russian Invasion Has Caused Estimated $10B in Environmental Damage: Ukraine

Ukraine’s environmental ministry has accused Russia of committing crimes causing billions of dollars in damage to Ukraine’s natural resources over the Kremlin’s six-month invasion.

The Ministry of Environmental Protection and Natural Resources of Ukraine said in a Telegram post Thursday that it had recorded over 2,000 incidents of Russian forces damaging the country’s air, soil and water. The post is the latest report describing the conflict’s disastrous consequences for Ukraine’s environment. The ministry said it was recording the incidents with the aim of holding the Kremlin accountable.

“From the beginning of the large-scale invasion of the Russian Federation into Ukraine, we record all the crimes of the occupier against the environment in order to make him [Russian President Vladimir Putin] pay in full for what he has done to the Ukrainian people,” the ministry’s post said.

The ministry estimated that the total degradation to Ukraine’s soil and water resources as well as air pollution caused by Russia’s invasion was worth 395 billion Ukrainian hryvnia (over $10 billion).

A Ukrainian Emergency Ministry rescuer attends a drill in the city of Zaporizhzhia on August 17, 2022, in the event of a crisis at the nuclear power plant near the city. Ukraine’s environment ministry says Russia’s invasion has caused billions of dollars in damage to Ukraine’s natural resources. Dimitar DILKOFF/Getty Images

The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) reported last month that its monitoring found both rural and urban areas of Ukraine could face “a toxic legacy for generations to come.” The agency said it was still verifying the pollution and ecological damage caused by thousands of possible incidents that had the potential to spill into neighboring countries.

“The mapping and initial screening of environmental hazards only serves to confirm that war is quite literally toxic,” UNEP Executive Director Inger Andersen said in a statement.

She added that Ukraine will “need huge international support to assess, mitigate and remediate the damage across the country, and alleviate risks to the wider region.”

Reports from media, conservation groups and government agencies have already raised alarm that the war has killed thousands of dolphins in the Black Sea, many of which have reportedly washed ashore in Turkey.

UNEP said the conflict has caused environmental hazards after oil and gas infrastructure as well as other industrial facilities were struck. Both sides in the war have reported damaged industrial facilities that spewed harmful chemicals into the air near civilian populations.

Luhansk regional administrator Serhiy Haidai in April urged residents to take shelter after Russian forces hit a nitric tank in Ukraine. Russian-backed separatists said this month that part of the city of Donetsk was filled with ammonia after Ukrainian forces struck a brewery.

One of the biggest environmental concerns in Ukraine centers around the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant, which was seized by Russian troops in March. Ukrainian officials and others have accused Russia of courting a nuclear catastrophe by stationing forces at the plant.

Newsweek has reached out to the Russian Defense Ministry for comment.