Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine has caused a serious environmental crisis. According to estimates by the Ukrainian Ministry of Defence, direct damage to the environment by the first quarter of 2025 will amount to approximately $9 billion: the war is “changing landscapes, polluting soil, water and air.” Daily shelling and explosions cause the accumulation of tonnes of pollutants in the air, water and soil. Since military aggression engulfed the entire country, the environment has been undergoing constant destruction, the consequences of which will be felt by human health and ecosystems for decades to come.
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Air pollution
Fires and explosions in eastern and southern Ukraine artificially increase emissions of harmful substances into the atmosphere. Rocket fuel and ammunition are particularly dangerous: Deputy Minister of Environmental Protection Olena Kramarenko emphasises that “their fuel poisons the soil and water, causing chemical pollution of the environment. Fires cause emissions into the air and pollute the atmosphere.” Damaged factories and power plants explode and burn, releasing carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide, nitrogen and sulphur oxides, and fine dust into the air. Due to the destruction of industrial and energy enterprises, greenhouse gas emissions in 2022 increased by approximately 23–26% compared to 2021, and military operations added more than 77 million tonnes of CO₂ equivalent in the first 18 months of the war. Large-scale forest fires caused by shelling only exacerbate the problem: in 2024, approximately 965,000 hectares of forest burned in Ukraine, twice the area of fires in the entire EU during the same period. Smoke and ash from the frontline forests spread for hundreds of kilometres, toxically polluting the air in populated areas.
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Water pollution
Military actions have had serious consequences for water resources. Destruction and explosions damage water treatment facilities, canals and dams – in particular, the Kakhovka Hydroelectric Power Plant, which has been partially destroyed, has run dry. This is the main reservoir for southern Ukraine. According to experts, in Ukraine, “many water treatment facilities and canals that are part of irrigation systems have been damaged… The impact on aquatic ecosystems is extraordinary.” Harmful substances accumulate in reservoirs after the destruction of oil depots and chemical storage facilities. For example, during the shelling of oil depots, several large-scale spills occurred: in the Ternopil region, a spill of mineral fertilisers caused mass fish deaths. Oil and chemical contamination has been detected not only in the epicentre of the fighting, but also in the western regions of Ukraine due to the long-range transport of debris and toxic dust.
Due to pollution and destruction of water infrastructure, the population lost access to clean water on a massive scale: according to the UN, from April to December 2022, the number of people deprived of quality drinking water supply increased from 6 to 16 million. Contaminated water enters rivers and wells, saturating groundwater with petroleum products, heavy metals and other toxins. Water supply and sewage systems in the combat zone are virtually non-functional, and underground water reservoirs are flooded by destroyed mines, carrying dissolved salts and metals into surrounding water bodies.
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Soil contamination
Soils, especially agricultural land, are suffering catastrophic pollution. Combat operations are covering fields and forests with construction debris, concrete and glass fragments, as well as the products of burning petroleum products and ammunition. According to estimates by the Ministry of Environment, rockets cause the most damage to the environment: “their fuel poisons the soil and water, causing chemical pollution of the environment.” Heavy metals and toxic elements penetrate the soil: pyrotechnic explosions release lead, mercury, arsenic, and phosphorus, which pollute the land for a long time and, together with rain, enter the food chain. According to experts, about 40% of Ukrainian soil is already suffering from erosion and degradation; the fighting has only exacerbated this problem, adding new toxic pollution.
Explosion craters, sinkholes and land subsidence are destroying the fertile humus layer. The Minister of Environmental Protection notes that after the destruction, the soil will remain unsuitable for agricultural use for a long time: “In the future, such degraded soil will not be usable for a long time… it will be preserved.” A significant part of Ukraine’s black soil cannot currently be cultivated due to mining and contamination, which threatens food security and the long-term recovery of the agricultural sector.
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Destruction of industrial facilities
Ukraine is an agrarian-industrial country, so the destruction of industrial facilities has fatal environmental consequences. Constant shelling of factories, oil depots, mines and chemical warehouses causes toxic emissions and man-made accidents. A number of oil tanks and factory reactors have been destroyed by shelling, not only in the active combat zone, but also in the rear due to accidental shell hits. For example, after a strike on the Sumykhimprom chemical plant in February 2022, ammonia leaked into the atmosphere, requiring urgent evacuation and still posing risks of soil and water contamination. In January 2023, explosions hit the Dnipro pipeline that supplies water to Mykolaiv, leading to an emergency spill of chemicals and causing mass displacement.
In addition, Russians are deliberately sabotaging nuclear power facilities and spent fuel storage sites. The Zaporizhzhya Nuclear Power Plant, the largest in Europe, holds hundreds of tonnes of nuclear fuel under lock and key, posing the threat of a thermonuclear disaster. Even without a direct terrorist attack, the destruction of its infrastructure could lead to radioactive contamination of a huge area. For example, an ecologist believes that the worst-case scenario — an explosion at all six reactors — would create an exclusion zone of about 2 million km², and the population of a number of Eastern European countries would be exposed to radiation contamination.
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Damage to natural ecosystems
The war has had a devastating impact on forests, parks, rivers and wildlife. At least 15% of Ukraine’s forest cover has already been affected by fires and explosions. Over the past three years, the scale of the damage has been staggering: more than 1.7 million hectares of forest (about one-fifth of the country’s total forest area) have been directly affected by the fighting. The front line has cut through sections of national parks and biosphere reserves, where defensive structures and equipment have been built. Russian troops are using protected areas as military bases, ignoring their status as conservation areas.
In addition to forests, wetlands, steppe and mountain ecosystems have also come under fire. Shelling has frightened or killed rare animals and birds, and toxic emissions are causing mutations and mass deaths of flora and fauna. According to environmentalists, about 20% of the nature reserve fund (lakes, forests, nature reserves) is located in the combat zone and has been significantly damaged — many reserves located in Donbas and Kherson region burn down every year. Kakhovka, flooded by the occupiers in November 2022, destroyed the ecological balance in southern Ukraine: the drying up of this large reservoir caused salinisation and poisoning of the soil downstream along the Dnieper, threatening the Zaporizhzhia coast and crops.
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Technogenic risks and demining
After three years of war, Ukraine is also an area of large-scale man-made threats. Every stone and patch of land can hide explosive objects: according to UN estimates, more than 23% of the country’s territory (approximately 139,000 km²) is potentially mined with explosives and mines. Clearing such an area could take decades. So far, thousands of people and animals have been killed or maimed by hidden mines and shells.
In addition, there is a constant danger of man-made accidents caused by shelling. The destruction of dams, pipelines, and chemical reservoirs can cause new disasters: the explosion of the Irpin dam in the spring of 2022 flooded thousands of hectares, and the recent strike on an oil pipeline in the Kharkiv region caused massive damage to the regional environment. Groundwater in the Donbas mines, where the occupiers destroyed the pumping systems, is rising and dissolving heavy metals, threatening the region’s drinking water basins.
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Infrastructure problems
The destruction caused by the war has disrupted the normal functioning of environmental infrastructure. Transport links are blocked and damaged, making it difficult to deliver resources for repair and restoration of systems. Many landfills and slag heaps are located on the front line and are in danger of bursting: their flooding or destruction could cause new chemical contamination of water bodies and soil. Sawdust and debris from destroyed buildings litter the roadsides, creating spontaneous landfills in combat zones. The energy sector is also in a deplorable state: destroyed power lines cut off villages and towns from water supply and sewage treatment. Along with the military operations, the normal environmental monitoring system is not functioning – the lack of data complicates the response to accidents and long-term nature conservation planning.
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