Crimes against the environment are a distinguishable type of crime committed by russia on Ukrainian territory.
War destroys soils, forests, biodiversity, water bodies, industrial, infrastructure, and energy facilities, among other things. Ukrainian ecologists are gathering evidence in order to prove these crimes and sue in an international court.
On August 22, t the National Interests Advocacy Network “ANTS” together with the CSO “Enviroment-People-Law” and the International Center of Ukrainian Victory held a press tour “Documentation environmental crimes in Chernihiv for a lawsuit in international court” for the national and international media.
“It is important for us to see how the international community continues to support us in matters of weapons and equipment, the provision of air defense systems, the protection of critical infrastructure, and holding Russia accountable for all the damage, especially acts of genocide and ecocide,” Hanna Hopko said.
Kateryna Polyanska, ecologist, analyst of the EPL and Anatoliy Pavelko, leading legal adviser of the EPL:
- used geospatial and satellite databases to take photos of the fire in the completely burned-out Epicenter megamarket.
- gathered soil in ravines, in the center, and around the locations where 500 and 1,500 kilogram bombs were dropped in a small forest area near the regional center. In just a few days, they will send these data to one of the domestic accredited laboratories for content analysis.
Other city infrastructure objects that were hit by air and artillery strikes were also monitored as part of the press tour.
Every day, russian occupying forces caused severe damage to Ukraine’s ecology, which will have disastrous effects in the future. The ecological toll of the war will be felt by the Ukrainian people for decades. It is critical to communicate the truth about how russians demolish Ukrainian cities, kill and mistreat citizens, treat prisoners of war, and spread fakes and lies. Today, Ukraine is the core of environmental crimes in Europe, and the national and international media must be loud about it.
