Ukraine's Environmental Damage From War Will Take Years To Clean Up

Russia's attacks on fuel depots and chemical plants, such as this one on the Azot chemical plant on June 18 in Syevyerodonetsk, have released toxins into the air and groundwater, threatening biodiversity, climate stability, and the health of Ukraine's population.

A view of the flooded area near the village of Demydiv, which lies 40 kilometers north of Kyiv, on October 27. Ukraine intentionally flooded the area to slow down Russia's invasion and protect the capital early on in the war. 

After the flood in Demydiv, residents said their tap water turned cloudy, tasted funny, and left a film on pots and pans after cooking. The village was under Moscow's control until April, when Russian troops withdrew after failing to take Kyiv. The World Wildlife Fund says more than 6 million people across Ukraine have limited or no access to clean water.
 

Olha Lehan, 71, who lives in Demydiv, is facing an uncertain future in a moldy house without access to clean water and a garden that is ruined.
 

The staples that Olha once relied on, such as these potatoes, now float in the putrid water of her flooded basement.

Ukrainian authorities had been bringing fresh water into Demydiv, but the shipments stopped in October when the tanker truck broke down, forcing residents to rely on the dirty water.

“We don’t have another option. We don’t have money to buy bottles,” Iryna Stetcenko told the Associated Press. Her family has diarrhea, and she’s concerned about the health of her two teenagers.

“I feel depressed --- there's water all around and under my house," said Demydiv resident Tetyana Samoylenko. “I don't see much changing in the future.”

 

Following a Russian missile strike on a fuel depot in Kalynivka on March 25, a British charity discovered signs of contamination at a nearby pond. They suspect this was caused by oil that had seeped into the water, killing many fish.

Workers at the fuel depot in Kalynivka are still cleaning up months later.
 

Another worker at the fuel depot in Kalynivka.

“This pollution caused by the war will not go away. It will have to be solved by our descendants, to plant forests, or to clean the polluted rivers,” said Dmytro Averin, an environmental expert with the Zoi Environment Network, a nonprofit organization based in Switzerland.

“In addition to combat casualties, war is also hell on people’s health, physically and mentally,” said Rick Steiner, a U.S. environmental scientist. The health impact from contaminated water and exposure to toxins unleashed by the conflict “may take years to manifest,” he said.
 

Ukraine's agricultural sector, a key part of its economy, has also been affected. Fires have damaged crops, killed livestock, burned thousands of hectares of forests, and prevented farmers from completing the harvest, said Serhiy Zibtsev, a forestry professor at Ukraine's National University of Life and Environmental Sciences.

“The fires are so massive," he said, adding that farmers “lost everything they were harvesting for winter.”