Weltschau

Since the beginning of the war on the territory of Ukraine, the Russian army has repeatedly proved its baseness and immorality in various acts. Killing civilians, hitting kindergartens, raping women, and looting houses have become common methods of waging war for Russian soldiers. Unfortunately, due to active hostilities, deterioration occurred in the environmental sphere as well.

Ukraine has faced massive climatic challenges since the beginning of the war. The destructive force of change is constant: fires, the emission of various gases, the destruction of infrastructure, and other direct and indirect effects. The main changes and the dangerous threat were explained by Anna Koryagina, an environmentalist and assistant of the communications department of the NGO “Ekodiya”, who gave an interview to the media “Focus”.

(«Фокус»)

(Photo: Anna Koryagina, from open sources)

According to the environmentalist, large-scale attacks on the Ukrainian power grid have led to many uncontrolled leaks of elegas, a greenhouse gas that is more harmful than carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide.

“The Russian war in Ukraine is also contributing to climate change by causing significant emissions of greenhouse gases. The total climate damage caused by the Russian Federation over two years of full-scale invasion of Ukraine is $32 billion. Such data emerge from the updated report of the Initiative for Accounting for Greenhouse Gases of War, the preparation of which involved scientists, experts, and also representatives of Ecodia,” says Koryagina.

In just 24 months since the invasion, emissions have risen to 175 million tons of carbon dioxide, far exceeding the annual emissions of an industrialized country like the Netherlands.

(Photo: representatives of Ukraine at the conference, from open sources)

We will remind that at the end of 2024, Ukraine had its own pavilion for the third time at the “COP29” conference –the largest and most influential international climate event of the year, which took place in Baku. The Ukrainian delegation noted that for almost 1,000 days of full-scale war, damage to the environment of Ukraine amounted to 65 billion euros. All elements of the ecosystem were affected by the Russian attacks: air, water, soil, forests, and protected areas. At COP29, Ukraine initiated the creation of a Global Platform for the development of international methods for assessing environmental damage from military actions.

Chorba Cristina is a first-year master’s student at the Department of Journalism of the Taurida National University.

The photo of Chorba Cristina: Open sources.