as a russian bomb And bullets destroyed buildings and ended lives, Ukrainian scientists scrambled to catalog the impact of the war on the country’s natural biodiversity. Many run outside to inspect bat colonies, frogs or endangered plants, risking their safety to map heat and protect data. The Ukrainian wasteland has a diverse landscape of dense forests, alpine meadows, grasslands, wetlands and marine estuaries inhabited by bears, wolves, lynx, gophers, grouse, storks, sturgeons, dolphins and furry blinds Mole and other animals. The country is an important waypoint for many migratory birds.
If anything, the value of the environment increases as war destroys what was once available, sometimes permanently. Destruction of air, water, plants and animals is likely to continue long after Ukrainian cities are rebuilt. One day, the information that Ukrainian scientists are now gathering may provide evidence for environmental crimes in Russia. Russia should pay the price for this environmental damage. If only the legal system could awaken reality.
war is Harm to Ukrainian wildlife. “A lot of animals are frightened by noise and vibration,” says Oleksii Marushchak, a conservation biologist in Kiev. Nesting grounds for birds have been destroyed. Military vehicles sank into rivers and lakes along with tons of oil and other harmful chemicals. “They will destroy the food base for small animals like insects. Without insects, there would be no frogs; without frogs, there would be no cranes.”
Fires, explosions and collapsed buildings have filled Ukraine’s air, water and soil with harmful particulate matter and nitric acid. Poisoned resources can take decades to repair.
The Ukrainian habitat of the marble polecat, a rare and gorgeous animal that looks like a golden-spotted ferret, is now a total war zone. In a national nature park in southeastern Ukraine, the Russian military has crushed a rare and endangered crocus-like flower, the spring meadow saffron. In the Black Sea, military activity is reportedly killing dolphins. In Chernobyl, the Russians burned more than 37,000 acres of forest. According to the Ukrainian Nature Conservation Organization, 44 percent of Ukraine’s protected natural lands have been damaged by war.
Global ecosystems depend on biodiversity to survive times of stress. Before the war, the country already lacked resources for conservation. Whenever the war ends, Ukrainians need healthy soil to grow crops, clean water to drink and fish, forests to cool down, and natural spaces to rebuild biodiversity and some people’s mental health. Farmland hollowed out by bombs and poisoned by pollutants takes years to eradicate and replace. Toxic pollutants in rivers and streams can kill fish and their food, leaving food that may be unsafe. Forests not directly destroyed by bombs, bullets or fires will be recorded for reconstruction, and unexploded ordnance will make walking unsafe. More than a decade after the Iraq War, its impact on environmental infrastructure is evident in sewage-laden roads and brackish tap water.
“Facilities such as factories, shops or McDonald’s can be restored with appropriate investments, but natural science and cultural heritage may be lost forever,” said Oleh Prylutskyi, a mycologist and professor at Kharkiv State University in Ukraine.
russia must responsible for the environmental damage it causes. Environmental hazards rob a nation of its cultural and natural heritage and cause hardship for its civilians. If no one is responsible for these actions, they will be considered acceptable.
