Weltschau

The war in Ukraine has terrible consequences not only for Europe but also for the world. Every day, hundreds of chemicals are released into the atmosphere, which destroy nature and poison fresh water supplies when they get into the soil. Recently, Vladimir Putin began to threaten with nuclear weapons. I don’t think it’s worth detailing the consequences of a nuclear attack on Europe and Russia itself, but the Russians don’t care; they’re used to dying for nothing, but I’m sure that European citizens don’t want to die for Putin’s ambitions.

Therefore, now it is worth paying attention not only to the economic and historical plans of this war but also to the ecological one, which is reflected on the entire planet. Recently, I have been very interested in the whereabouts of our eco-activists, such as Greta Thumberg, who does not make calls to save the planet from a nuclear disaster, or where the eco-activists were when the Russian Federation blew up one of the largest water reservoirs in Ukraine, the Kakhovka Hydro-electric Station. On June 6, 2023, at 2:30 a.m., Russian troops blew up the Kakhovskaya HPP, which was mined by them at the end of February 2022. This act of terrorism disrupted the ecosystems of Ukraine and thereby caused unique consequences.

As the “Ukrainian Environmental Protection Group” notes, “Kakhov reservoir is the second largest reservoir in Ukraine (area: 2155 km²) and the first in terms of water volume (water volume: 18.19 km³), located in three regions of Ukraine (Zaporizka, Dnipropetrovsk, and Kherson), and has a length of 240 km. The water level of the Dnipro River was raised by 16 m with the construction of a hydroelectric station almost 4 km long. Therefore, the negative consequences of this terrorist act for wildlife will be manifested in an area of at least 5,000 km² (flooding zone and drainage zone). Only the area that has been covered by the waters of the reservoir for the last 68 years and is now exposed to the sky for at least years will be larger than 1000 km²!

Kakhov reservoir contained huge stocks of freshwater fish, which Ukraine lost: at the time of the terrorist attack, there were no less than 43 species of fish. The birds, along with the fish, will disappear. Important was the bird nesting process on the mounds in the reservoir’s center, which until now were isolated islands and can now get direct land access from predators and people. This also led to an eco-government. The impact on plant life after flooding is just as colossal. As a result of a catastrophic decrease in the water level in the reservoir, aquatic and coastal aquatic plants in the Kahovsky Reservoir will disappear.

Moreover, above the dam of the Kakhovskaya HPP, as a result of drainage, a number of nature conservation areas will also be affected, including at least 11 objects of the nature reserve fund. Here they are listed by ecologists and historians: Kamianska Sich (12,261.14 hectares); Velikiy Lug (16,756 hectares); Panay Regional Landscape Park; Cairo beam (664.9 hectares); Mai Gora tract (68.0 hectares); Kamensky forest massif; Ivanivsky Bir; Vodyansk kuchuguri; Stoyany (15 ha); Malokakhovsky Bir (177 ha); Park-monument of horticultural art: Arboretum of Kakhovsky forest farm (15 hectares).

Moreover, the territory that was flooded in whole or in part includes nine sites of the Emerald Network of Europe, created by the decisions of the Council of Europe from 2009 to 2020, which led to economic consequences. The loss of the natural features of these territories endangers Ukraine’s fulfillment of its obligations to preserve these territories for the whole of Europe, which is in the hands of the Russian Federation, in order to discredit Ukraine.

At the same time, we should not forget about the desalination of the Black Sea. The release of a large amount of fresh water changes the structure of the water in certain areas of the Black Sea and will lead to the following consequences: the extinction of fish and an increase in the number of jellyfish.

Blowing up the Kakhovka Hydroelectric Station is a terrorist attack not only against Ukraine or the European Union (EU), but a crime against humanity and our descendants. But… Russia has committed similar crimes more than once (for example, blowing up the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant and concealing information about it). But we will raise this topic in our future posts.

Dr. Dosenko Anzhelika

Ph.D. of social communications, the head of the Journalism Department at V. I Vernadskiy Taurida National University. Internet researcher, soldier’s wife, mother… Still in Kiev.