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Dear
Friends!
Of
late, we have been hearing less and less about
important happenings related to the war in
Ukraine. Reports of mass shelling, fighting
around nuclear power plants, destruction of
forests, and water pollution caused by shelling
of industrial centers have practically
disappeared from mass media. Nevertheless, the
war’s destructive “work” continues. We must
remain vigilant. While events may not be visible
to the media, they play a key role in
understanding the environmental consequences of
Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
At the end
of March, we learned that the Russian invaders
had established their own occupier
administration of a protected area for crucially
important steppe grasslands and one of Europe’s
oldest nature reserves – Askania Nova Biosphere
Reserve. This necessarily ended Ukrainian and
European collegial support (including monetary)
of the reserve. UWEC Work Group expert and
leader of Ukrainian Nature Conservation Group
Oleksiy Vasyliuk tells us about current events
in Askania Nova and how the reserve is
surviving:
Unfortunately,
even areas of Ukraine liberated from the
invaders cannot currently fulfill their
ecosystem functions. Almost 40% of Ukraine’s
territory has been covered with land mines,
meaning local residents have lost access not
only to nature reserves and national parks, but
also simple forests. It is difficult to imagine
the damage that results from lost ecosystem
services, sometimes many years into the future.
We can only begin the conversation:
Russians
are also losing access to ecosystem services. In
early 2023, under the guise of strengthening
Moscow’s air defenses, forests adjacent to the
UNESCO “Church of the Ascension, Kolomenskoye”
World Heritage Site were destroyed. This is an
illustrative example of how natural landscapes
in Russia can be destroyed under false pretenses
today. UWEC WG expert Evgeny Simonov shares his
analysis:
Landscapes
occupied for some time are especially impacted
by intensive use resulting from the war. Today,
we review the war’s impacts in Donetsk and
Luhansk Oblasts. UWEC WG experts Oleksii
Vasyliuk and Yulia Spinova analyze the
consequences of unregulated coal mining for the
region, and UWEC WG’s Valeriia Kolodezhna’s
infographic clearly reflects this multi-year
process:
As
we have reported more than once, the war also
affects international environmental policy,
including the Sustainable Development Goals
(SDGs) adopted by United Nations member states.
The Regional Forum on Sustainable Development
Goals organized a discussion of the war’s
impacts on achievement of SDGs, including expert
Oleksii Vasyliuk. Representatives of Belarus’
current regime made a surprise attempt to block
the event itself, resulting in only greater
attention to the interplay of SDGs and the war.
Learn more about the event and its results in
coverage by Nelya Rakhimova, coordinator of
Russia’s Coalition for Sustainable Development
(KURS–Russia) and event
co-organizer:
The
longer the war goes on, the more “fake news”
related to its environmental consequences we
encounter. Russian propaganda makes especially
active use of misleading news. UWEC WG expert
Oleksii Vasyliuk examines stories about combat
mosquitoes and lizards capable of spreading
viral diseases, flooding Energodar, and errors
by Ukrainian journalists:
In
addition to our reporting and analysis, we are
launching a special webinar series to counter
misinformation about the war’s environmental
consequences in Russian-speaking spaces.
Although these webinars will be offered in
Russian, we will, of course, share key
conclusions and expert reports in both Ukrainian
and English. Register for the
seminars:
We
continue to track the war’s environmental
consequences on our Website, Twitter, and
Facebook.
Wishing
you strength and
peace!
Alexei Ovchinnikov,
Editor
UWEC Work
Group | 
