Ukraine wants to make Russia pay for environmental toll of war

Missiles and mortars kill and maim people, but Russia's year-long war in Ukraine is also poisoning the air, ground and sea, says Ukraine's minister of environmental protection, who is building a case that Russia should pay for its ecological "crimes."

"We've lost some parts of our nature forever," said Ruslan Strilets in an interview from the capital, Kyiv, referring to things like contaminated groundwater and burnt forests. 

Ukraine estimates the total environmental damage so far is more than $48 billion US.

From the first weeks of the war in early 2022, inspection teams across Ukraine have been sampling, photographing and recording water and soil contamination and measuring air pollution amid a constant barrage of missiles and mortars.

In June, for example, Ukraine says Russian missiles tore into a shopping mall in Kremenchuk, killing 20 people. According to the State Environmental Inspectorate, the inferno and billowing black smoke also spewed 2,200 tonnes of pollutants into the air, including ammonia, benzopyrene and sulfur trioxide. 

Air pollution has increased by three to four times since the war began, even with industrial production at only about 30 per cent of pre-war output, says the environment minister.

"In the first days of the war, I realized that war is not limited to the fears of people, but it spreads to every living thing," said Olena Kryvoruchkina, a Ukrainian MP and chief co-ordinator of the Operational Headquarters, which is collecting data and evidence of environmental ruin.

"We can quickly rebuild a bridge or a house, but it will take decades to renew the nature that they've destroyed," she said. But, she added, "we will try."

Ukraine hasn't worked out the mechanics, but it is mounting a case for ecological damage from the war to be a sizeable part of any future compensation. The huge challenge will be to prove alleged crimes in any international court and force  Russia to pay. 

For now, Ukraine is gathering data and building international support.

Russia's targeting of Ukrainian fuel depots and refineries, for example, has sparked massive fires that have released harmful pollutants including soot, methane and carbon dioxide. Since the invasion began, more than 600,000 tonnes of petroleum products have been burned, according to the latest statistics from the environment ministry. 

"This is a danger to the health of Ukrainians. These burning oil depots and other air pollutants due to war operations end up in people's lungs, and can cause horrible illnesses," said Kryvoruchkina.

But scientists say the damage goes beyond people. 

A chemical tanker struck by a Russian missile a day after the invasion began polluted the Black Sea, says Ukraine. A satellite photo taken nearly a month later shows a slick covering 2,000 square kilometres, according to Ukraine's Institute of Marine Biology.