KYIV -- Russia's invasion of Ukraine has had a catastrophic toll on the nation's environment -- yet another casualty of the war, say analysts and officials.
"The damage to the [Ukrainian] ecology caused by Russia is estimated at $35.3 billion," Ukrainian Defence Minister Oleksii Reznikov said on Twitter on January 2 in English.
"Millions of hectares of nature preserves are under threat. Article 55 [of the Geneva Conventions] ... prohibits waging war VS the natural environment by way of reprisals, but Russia doesn't care," he added.
Mines and unexploded ordnance have contaminated 174,000 square kilometres of Ukraine, and "three million hectares of forest in Ukraine are affected by hostilities," Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in an address to the New Zealand parliament on December 13, according to his website.
"Dozens of rivers are polluted. Hundreds of coal mines are flooded. Dozens of the most hazardous enterprises, including chemical ones, have been destroyed by Russian strikes," he said.
"The destroyed economy and infrastructure can be rebuilt. It takes years. But you cannot rebuild destroyed nature -- just as you cannot restore destroyed life."
Areas near conflict zones have become hotbeds of environmental disaster since Russia invaded in February 2022.
In the Black Sea, for example, an abnormal number of dolphins have died.
"We don't yet fully understand what exactly is happening," Natalia Gozak, executive director of the Ecoaction Centre for Environmental Initiatives, told Caravanserai.
About 800–900 dolphins have died, which is double the number in the same period last year, she said.
"It's absolutely the effect of the war."
Unusual dolphin behaviour has also been observed near the shores of Romania, Bulgaria and Turkey, according to Serhiy Kostenko, the Odesa provincial prosecutor general.
"Specialists have done autopsies on animals and extracted the body tissue they need," Kostenko said at a news conference in Odesa on December 21.
"This tissue is now being studied in specialised scientific institutions in Germany and Italy to determine the cause of death, but the main hypothesis of the investigation is acoustic trauma," Kostenko said.
Dolphins are not the only species affected by the war.
About 80 animal species are on the brink of extinction due to the invasion, and more than 10 million animals have been killed, environmentalists estimate.
An atrocity
The destruction has also extended to Ukraine's zoos and natural reserves.
"Coming across animals in zoos that are on the Russians' path is a horror," Viktoria Samoilova, a Ukrainian screenwriter who is finishing a documentary film on the destruction of Kharkiv Zoo, one of the largest and best-known zoos in Ukraine, told Caravanserai.
The zoo, which occupies more than 140 hectares and held about 2,000 animals, including large predators, reptiles and monkeys, came under Russian shelling from the earliest days of the full-scale invasion.
"They simply destroyed this zoo. They bombed it completely. All the utility connections were destroyed, there was no heat, there was nothing, and the animals started dying from the cold," Samoilova said.
"The marmosets, which are very thermophilic, weren't warm enough, and they died from hypothermia."
"Many animals also died from stress, including a kangaroo that died from a myocardial rupture. The sound of a bomb frightened it," she added.
"When we were filming the documentary, we saw a dead burro and dead tiger cubs."
"It all leaves a deep and lasting impression on you," she said.
"Valuable natural areas are being destroyed," said Gozak, the Ecoaction executive director.
"At this point around 20 natural heritage zones have been damaged ... individual animal species are also being obliterated. But we realise that the repercussions will be even more drastic -- we just don't have all the information right now," she said.
"My colleagues have calculated that about 20 rare plants that are now under protection on occupied territory could suffer, such as snowdrops and rare tulips. If any vehicles roll over them or there's shelling, they'll suffer greatly and there will be no way for them to bounce back," Gozak said.
In addition to decimating plants and animals, the war is having a disastrous effect on air and soil conditions, she added.
"The air is actually one of the biggest problems. According to the methodology used by the Ministry of Environmental Protection and Natural Resources, damage from contaminated air makes up two-thirds of all our losses in terms of natural resources -- that's if you look at it from a financial perspective," Gozak said.
"If we're talking about the longest-term repercussions, of course they're in the soil. The shells and mines contaminate the soil with heavy metals, which stay there for many years."
"The current estimate is that this has affected 30–34% of all agricultural land. That land is either occupied or in a combat zone. That's one of the most perceptible consequences," said Gozak.
"All of this is wrecking the possibility for future generations to keep living on that land," she said.
Reparations
Ukraine must seek reparations to restore the nation's environment, say observers.
"Russia's aggressive war has devastated Ukraine's environment to an extent comparable to the [1986] accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant," Eduard Bagirov, a human rights activist and director of the International League for the Protection of the Rights of Citizens of Ukraine, told Caravanserai.
"Consequently, Russia needs to compensate the environmental damage that's been caused. That should cost at least $50–60 billion -- that's the minimum," Bagirov said.
"We won't be able to completely restore our environment in a short period. Maybe about 70% will be restored in 10 to 15 years. But the entire process will take at least half a century. Just think of how long that is -- that's what we need to start thinking about now," he said.
"Whatever the Russians can't destroy, they want to steal. Remember how the Russian paratroopers fleeing Kherson stole a raccoon that was in the zoo? It's a sign of the traditional Russian bear: drag away the prey and take it to the lair. That's what they're doing."
"As for us, after we vanquish that bear, we'll need to do a comprehensive analysis of [Ukraine's] environmental condition and map out the steps that will allow our children and grandchildren to live in decent environmental conditions," Bagirov said.