In an online speech at the OSCE Climate and Security Conference, Svitlana Hrynchuk, Minister of Environmental Protection and Natural Resources of Ukraine, highlighted the large-scale environmental consequences of Russian aggression. According to her, Russia’s attacks not only destroy infrastructure, but also leave a deep mark on the environment, the impact of which extends far beyond Ukraine.
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According to Hrynchuk, since the beginning of June alone, Russia has launched about 2,500 air targets at Ukraine, including kamikaze drones, cruise missiles and ballistic missiles. Each nightly attack means a sharp increase in air pollution. One missile strike causes up to 60 kilograms of harmful emissions.
For example, the shelling of Odesa over ten days in June caused more than 344 tonnes of pollutants, which is estimated at $26,000 in damages. The night attack on Kyiv from 9 to 10 June released 1,902 tonnes of emissions and caused environmental damage worth about $140,000.
Hrynchuk also cited a number of examples from other regions: fires at industrial facilities in Lviv and Sumy regions, fires at residential buildings and a children’s railway in Kharkiv region, and shelling of a psychoneurological clinic in Kherson region. In total, over 82 cases of damage to environmental facilities were recorded in the first ten days of June. Cars, infrastructure, administrative and commercial buildings are burning every day.
Since the start of the full-scale invasion, more than 8,000 cases of environmental damage have been documented in Ukraine. The total environmental damage has already exceeded USD 94 billion. The environmental crisis caused by the war goes beyond the national level – greenhouse gas emissions from the hostilities have exceeded 230 million tonnes of CO₂ over the past three years. This is comparable to the annual emissions of countries like Belgium.
“We cannot wait for the end of hostilities to start restoring the environment. The world is changing too rapidly, and environmental unity is needed today more than ever,” the minister stressed.
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