by Richard Randolph
On February 24, 2022, Russia invaded Ukraine. The ensuing hostilities have led to hundreds of thousands of dead and wounded, Ukrainian and Russian economic damage, and regional environmental devastation. I am a 26-year US Army veteran and a Presbyterian elder, and I am involved in an ongoing medical ministry to civilians in formerly occupied areas of Ukraine. I have been in conflict zones and participated in medical disaster response for 13 years. This conflict has so much harm to address, but I want to illuminate an overlooked tragedy: the effect of this war on the environment.
Ukraine gained its independence in 1991 during the breakup of the Soviet Union. The new country prioritized manufacturing before the environment, resulting in a significant baseline load of environmental compromise and contamination. Before the war, Ukraine provided one-sixth of the Soviet Union’s manufacturing. After Ukraine’s independence, this emphasis on heavy manufacturing still applied as oligarchs acquired and consolidated industrial assets. This was especially true in the eastern Ukrainian region of the Donbas. Over 600 facilities processed more than 219,000 tons of chemicals each year. As a major agricultural center, Ukraine consumed around 100,000 tons of pesticides yearly. Mining was significant in Donbas, and toxic waste disposal was haphazard. The invasion and the current war have markedly compounded these problems.
When the Russians invaded, the war spread widely over the Ukrainian countryside. Russian and Ukrainian militaries advanced and retreated across almost one-third of Ukraine in the north, east, and south. The movement of heavy vehicles across the countryside and the construction of barriers have disrupted water systems and compacted the soil, impairing soil fertility. Artillery shelling, wildfires, and chemical pollution have affected 30% of Ukraine’s protected nature areas, causing loss of protected animal and plant life through starvation, noise, wildfires, and direct weapons effects.
Chemical contamination from the war will affect the environment and human health for generations. Many industrial sites were directly targeted or suffered collateral damage during ground combat, releasing toxic industrial chemicals, including benzene, toluene, naphthalene, hydrogen sulfide mercaptan, ammonia, and hydrochloric acid. These chemicals have carcinogenic and direct cytotoxic effects. Fuel spills from destroyed vehicles have contaminated the water. Ukraine and several Western European countries have accused Russia of ecocide for these industrial attacks.
Expended ammunition contains a significant amount of heavy metals that contaminate the environment. These metals are directly injected into the soil or the water or are aerosolized and have long-term health effects, especially on children. Currently, one-third of Ukrainian land contains unexploded ordinance. Depleted uranium rounds, which are used by both sides, have cancer-causing potential. This contamination will persist for generations. Elemental metals from artillery shells are still present in the soils of World War I battlefields at levels 50% higher than baseline.
Landmines have been used ubiquitously by both sides for defense. While anti-vehicular mines were mostly placed on or near roads, antipersonnel mines are present anywhere that infantry soldiers may venture. Ukraine is currently the most heavily mined country in the world, with an area the size of North Carolina affected. Last year, the World Bank estimated the cost of mine clearance at $37 billion. Once the fighting has passed from a mined area, the people most at risk are civilians and children.
On June 6, 2023, the Russian army explosively breached the Kharkova Dam near Kherson. The Kharkova Reservoir, built in 1956, contains five trillion gallons of water. The breach flooded downstream areas to a depth of 18 feet, killing hundreds and releasing sediment with toxic chemicals onto fertile farmlands. The floodwater swept away many landmines, which are often laid on top of the ground, and displaced people for many miles. The UN estimated that the dam breach caused $14 billion in damage.
The cumulative environmental disruption will continue to have significant effects on human health. Toxins will contribute to various human diseases such as heavy metal poisoning; direct chemical injury will trigger lung and kidney disease. Many toxins are also carcinogenic and will plague those affected over the coming decades. Like other wars, victims will continue to be tallied for many decades.
The war has also set back Ukraine’s efforts towards a carbon-neutral future. Military vehicles are carbon-intensive, both in their production and use. Seventy-five percent of Ukraine’s wind generation and 50% of its solar generation were decommissioned within the first six months of the war, forcing the country to reopen coal-fired power plants that had been shuttered. Europe’s curtailment of their use of Russian natural gas also encouraged the switch back to coal-fired power plants, increasing the country’s greenhouse gas production. One year ago, it was estimated that the war had generated 175 million tons of CO2, with additional amounts to be generated during reconstruction.
There is no ongoing tabulation of environmental harm caused by the war. Certain areas are inaccessible, and monitoring systems have been damaged or destroyed. Although catastrophic events such as damage to a nuclear reactor have not occurred, the possibility must be considered. The environmental harm is immense, and the consequences will last for generations.
While in Ukraine, I have seen the landscape disrupted, the results of artillery attacks on the land and buildings, and the health effects of a disrupted public health system. It is too early to see the impact of many of the toxic exposures, but those effects will surely come.
What can we do? We can pray for a just end to the conflict. We can support the mitigation of the harms of war and the remediation of damage. We can support a robust reconstruction of Ukraine in an environmentally responsible manner. We can pray for the people of Ukraine and Russia.
Rick Randolph is a retired family physician based in Leawood, Kansas, and is a ruling elder at Grace Covenant Presbyterian Church. He retired as a U.S. Army Colonel and the Chief Medical Officer of the disaster/disease response organization Heart to Heart International. He is active with many environmental groups and has served as the Chairman of the Environmental Sustainability Rotarian Action Group.
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