Nature on the Edge

the environmental impact of the Russian invasion and occupation

The immense damage to Ukraine's and the world's ecology caused by the Russian war remains an underreported topic in international media. Vitsche takes action to inform people about the environmental disaster unfolding in Ukraine due to Russia's war and occupation since 2014, and especially since the full-scale invasion, as we believe knowing the issue is the first step towards tackling it.

Catastrophe on Mute

environmental crisis that remains overlooked

Russia’s unprovoked full-scale invasion of Ukraine has brought about the largest war on European soil since WWII. The rising human cost of this war and the severe devastation of whole cities along the line of the Russian advances have shaken the world and underpinned the growing atmosphere of global injustice as well as the fragile nature of the relative post-WWII stability in Europe.

Although the human dimension of the war is being carefully examined and publicized by international activists, researchers and media, one aspect of the conflict-driven devastation caused by the Russian invasion still remains understudied and underreported—its environmental impact.

Lack of access to the Russian-occupied territories of Ukraine remains the main challenge for building a comprehensive account of the war-related environmental damage. However, a few extensive research publications suggest that the Russian invasion has triggered a multi-faceted ecological disruption leading to irreversible erasure of protected natural habitats while setting the ground for lasting consequences for the global ecology to emerge in the decades to come.

The main drivers of environmental damage include:

Erasure of local biodiversity following the Kakhovka Dam destruction
The destruction of the Kahhovka Dam by Russia flooded the area equal to the size of Nuremberg and Stuttgart combined. The flooding killed thousands of animals and plants inhabiting areas protected by the EU-established Emerald Network aimed at safeguarding ecosystems of all-European importance.

Long-term threats to global food security
The Russian invasion of Ukraine has created the largest mined land area in the world, covering 174 thousand km2—a land comparable to the size of Belgium, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Slovenia, and Denmark combined. Contamination of soils with mines triggered an immediate disruption of food supply chains worldwide. The resulting threat to global food security is here to last—it would take about 757 years to clear the areas contaminated by landmines, as approximated by GLOBSEC, a Slovakian-based NGO and think-tank.

Surging Carbon Emissions
Over 175 million tCO2e of excessive emissions resulted from the Russian invasion throughout the first two years of the full-scale war—an amount comparable to yearly emissions of industrialized nations such as the Netherlands and Belgium, or Austria, Finland, Switzerland, Denmark and Luxembourg combined.

Tracing the Footsteps of Crimes:

Food security

Ukraine is the world’s largest producer and exporter of sunflower seed and oil, accounting for 50% of the global market, and the 7th largest producer of wheat. Disruption to Ukraine’s agricultural sector caused by the Russian invasion has worsened the already fragile state of global food security.The countries of North Africa and Asia are among the most affected by this consequence of Russia’s war.

As a consequence of the Russian blockade of Ukraine’s seaports and Russian shelling of grain storage facilities and fields, Ukraine’s wheat exports fell from 6.5 million tons monthly pre-war to 5.2 tonnes per month following the invasion. Among the countries most dependent on these grain exports are Egypt, Yemen, Indonesia, Bangladesh, and Tunisia.

Given that 36% of Ukraine’s pre-war crops were produced in the territories directly affected by the Russian invasion, one-third of Ukrainian agricultural companies had to leave the market during the first year of the invasion, with the trend projected to last.

Photo: Libkos Video: Divia Documentary

Flora and Fauna

About 1350 plant and animal species suffered from the consequences of the invasion. Around 80 animal species, such as European bison, Eurasian lynx, and Brown bear, are currently under threat of complete extinction in Ukraine due to the Russian war.

Ukraine’s natural reserves in the occupied territories are under particular threat. Many animals of the Askania Nova biosphere reserve either died or were wounded due to the militarization of the area under the Russian occupational administration. Only throughout 2023, up to 150 antelopes and four African buffalos died because of neglect in occupation.

Moreover, the drastic change in Ukraine’s landscapes near the frontline disrupted global bird migration routes, considering that the affected area was part of Ukraine’s largest meridional eco-corridor.

Photo: Libkos Video: Divia Documentary

Kakhovka Dam destruction

The Kakhovka Dam destruction alone triggered severe ecological devastation: the water drainage killed the entire aquatic life of the reservoir, including up to 11,400 tons of fish and the whole population of 10,000 mollusks. The whole ecosystem irreversibly changed as a result of this disaster: a quarter of new flora in the area are invasive plant species, which push native plants out of their habitats, thereby degrading biodiversity.

The flooding of the areas below the Kakhovka Dam drowned about 20,000 land animals, including the inhabitants of protected natural reserves. Moreover, the polluted water flow containing 465 tons of transformer oil, toxic metals, pesticides, and chlorogenic compounds may have led to the bioaccumulation of chemicals in marine animals of the Black Sea. —the process when toxic substances cannot be metabolized by animals and remain in internal organs and affect animals’ growth, reproduction, and other vital functions.

However, it is impossible to assess the full extent of damage and the exact number of victims of this crime due to the lack of access to the occupied areas on the left bank of the Dnipro River, including the Russian-controlled city of Nova Kakhovka, where the breached dam is located. Thus, the actual numbers are likely to be much higher.

Photo: Libkos Video: Divia Documentary

Water

While the sudden release of freshwater into the Black Sea caused a decrease in water salinity, creating unfavorable conditions for marine aquatic life, the drainage of the Kakhovka reservoir caused an increase in the salinity of surface and groundwater, making the water unsuitable for human consumption. As a consequence, over 1 million residents were left without access to drinking water and sanitary services.

Mass mortality of land and aquatic animals, as well as contamination of water with chemicals, landfills, and sewage, has caused the spread of pathogens and created a heightened risk of water-borne disease outbreaks. Immediately after the flooding, the concentration of E. coli bacteria was established to be 5.000 times higher than the maximum permissible, posing a threat of cholera-like infectious conditions, as reported by Truth Hounds.

Photo: Libkos Video: Divia Documentary

Soil

Different types of damage are simultaneously affecting soils in areas near the frontline:

Mechanical damage — soil compaction resulting from bombardments, fortification construction, and military vehicle movement makes it harder for plants to adapt to ground surfaces.

Physical damage is caused by vibrations from explosions and heat waves caused by combat-triggered fires. These lead to extreme thermal and moisture fluctuations and affect soil organisms and biodiversity.

Chemical soil pollution by vehicle fuels, lubricants, solvents, and toxic heavy metals such as lead, cadmium, arsenic, and chromium poses a severe threat to the biodiversity of the affected areas. The concentration of heavy metals in these places exceeds the maximum permissible levels by up to 23 times.

Future restoration of soils can be approached using a variety of methods like succession, which suggests a complete replacement of the prior biodiversity of an area with a new one; cultivation of the plant Miscanthus x giganteus, which facilitates soil’s natural restoration; or other methods like chemical extraction and stabilization. However, it would take decades to restore soils using most of these methods, according to experts.

Photo: Libkos Video: Divia Documentary

Nuclear Safety

The Zaporizhia Nuclear Power Plant in Enerhodar, which has been controlled by the Russian forces since the early weeks of the invasion, relied on the Kakhovka reservoir to maintain the water-based cooling mechanism. Following the dam’s destruction and the reservoir’s drainage, an alternative source of water for cooling was employed — 11 newly constructed underground wells. Although the water from these 11 wells was sufficient to cool the 6 reactors that were left in a hot shutdown mode, it is still not adequate to maintain the water inventory in the ZNPP cooling pond, according to Truth Hounds & Project Expedite Justice.

Maintaining the power plant units in the hot shutdown mode under such circumstances allows for ‘accidents to occur more quickly,’ researchers conclude. Considering that the Zaporizhia Nuclear Power Plant is the largest in Europe and is among the 10 largest in the world, a potential accident there can create nuclear contamination on a scale of the Chornobyl disaster or up to three times higher, with the nuclear cloud spreading far beyond Ukraine’s borders.

Photo: Libkos Video: Divia Documentary

Carbon Emissions

The excessive 175 million tCO2e emissions produced throughout the first two years since the beginning of the Russian invasion are equivalent to putting 90 million new petrol cars on the road or building 260 coal-fired power units of 200 MW each, according to the Initiative on GHG Accounting of War & Ekodiya research. One-third of these war-driven emissions were produced outside of Ukraine and Russia and are mainly related to changes in the global aviation and energy sectors, which emphasizes that the effect of these emissions is not limited to Ukraine.

Another contributing factor is intensified landscape fires caused by warfare. This type of polluting event, apart from furthering war-linked deforestation, contributed an additional 22.9 million tCO2e to the total excess emissions.

Moreover, Russia’s continuous attacks on Ukraine’s crucial energy infrastructure resulted in uncontrolled leakage of SF6, the strongest existing greenhouse gas. These attacks resulted in 17.2 million tCO2e of excess emissions.

Photo: DSNS Video: Divia Documentary

Global Scale

While weaponizing food to put pressure on the international community, Russia also exploited Europe’s dependency on Russian fossil fuel exports in an attempt to achieve its strategic aims. The energy crisis resulting from the Russian invasion had caused some countries to roll back the EU-wide course towards greener energy production. For example, Germany had to boost its coal energy production despite its plan to ‘exit’ coal entirely, with the share of energy produced by coal-fired power plants in Germany reaching 36.3% throughout the year following the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

A similar trend was observed in China, the world’s largest contributor to the global CO₂ emissions structure. The coal come-back remained an issue across the globe in 2024 — the world’s coal power capacity rose for the first time since 2019.

In addition to the excessive CO₂ emissions driven by the warfare activities and the return of coal in many countries, the Russian invasion also forced some airlines to detour international flights connecting Europe and Asia, with new routes taking several hours longer and additional thousands of kilometers to pass. For example, JAL’s flights between London and Tokyo are now taking 15 hours instead of 11 with 2,800 kilometers of extra distance. In total, as approximated by the Initiative on GHG accounting of war, the additional 24 million tCO2 emissions can be attributed to this war-related development, which is equivalent to the combined annual emissions of Lithuania and Estonia.

Considering that up to 30% of Ukraine’s total forest reserves suffered due to warfare-induced fires and Russia’s use of “scorched earth” tactics, the rapid deforestation of areas under the Russian occupation and near the frontline contributes to the global decline of forests’ capacity to absorb carbon emissions. With the world losing approximately 10 million hectares of forest annually, this additional deforestation is a significant blow to global efforts to keep global warming under 1.5°C and tackle the swiftly worsening climate crisis.

Hope Amidst Chaos

Considering that the most appalling cases of environmental damage occur either on the occupied territories or in the immediate vicinity of intense battles, lack of access to lands and immediate danger to life from shelling remain the most significant issues for large ecological organizations, small grassroots initiatives, and eco-conscious individuals trying to mitigate the consequences of war and occupation. Nonetheless, the civil society of Ukraine has not abandoned this fight and has some stories of success to share.

The main directions of Ukraine’s eco-activists’ work include:

Rescue and rehabilitation

of animals suffering from the consequences of the invasion and their evacuation to safer areas of Ukraine or elsewhere in Europe, including Germany. Some of these initiatives work in collaboration with foreign organizations, such as the German branch of PETA.

UAnimals

UAnimals is a Ukrainian NGO with a strong track record of effective fighting for animals’ rights and practical animal protection activities. A legislative ban on animal circuses in Ukraine is largely their achievement, while their social awareness campaigns forced seven major fashion design houses to refrain from the use of natural fur. Since the beginning of the Russian invasion, UAnimals’ team has:

evacuated 4,535 animals from the war zone
distributed over 981 tons of food to the animals affected by the war
supported 21+ shelter reconstruction projects
financed the treatment of 298 animals in 2023, including 26 injured animals evacuated from the Donetsk and Kherson regions

The ‘Free Wings’ wild bird rehabilitation center

Founded by Viktor Shelvinskyi, a Lviv-based veterinary practitioner, this wild bird rehabilitation center has treated and returned over 200 birds to nature in the past year. The “Free Wings” center is currently hosting and treating 386 birds of 64 species, some of which were rescued from the frontlines.

Zoopatrol und Animal Rescue Kharkiv

Zoopatrol and Animal Rescue Kharkiv are among numerous self-organized activist groups that decided to take action following the Russian invasion and conduct risky rescue missions to the war-torn regions of Ukraine to save pets left behind in the lifeless towns obliterated by the Russian forces. Apart from the rescue trips and rehoming efforts, Zooportal also used donated funds to build a modern shelter and veterinary clinic in Irpin.

Renewable energy initiatives

Russian deliberate strikes on Ukraine’s power infrastructure took out over 50% of the country’s energy production capacity, leaving millions without electricity, heating, and water supply. This situation forced local governors, activists, and researchers to look for environmentally sustainable solutions that would help secure crucial supplies in wartime.

Energy Decentralization: The case of Zhytomyr

Thanks to Ukraine’s country-wide decentralization reform allowing local councils to manage tax revenues collected locally independently, the city of Zhytomyr managed to significantly modernize its energy infrastructure and continue its course towards more sustainable energy production in wartime. While shifting to more efficient power generation systems and increasing the share of renewable energy sources, the city also took a path of decentralizing its heat supply by constructing hi-tech thermal power plants, which utilize locally collected wooden waste. As a result, the city consumes ‘half as much gas as it did ten years ago — not 100 million cubic meters, but 47 million.’ Thus, Zhytomyr became less dependent on the country’s central power grid, which in turn made it less affected by blackouts.

Workshops on Renewable Energy

In response to the growing need for sustainable and independent sources of energy many Ukrainian households experienced due to the Russian invasion, a Vinnytsya-based environmental NGO ‘Synergy’ in collaboration with Ukraine-Hilfe Berlin e.V. organized a theoretical educational webinar and a practical workshop on installing and configuring hybrid balcony solar systems. The project brought together 25 activists, academics, energy managers, and internally displaced persons who plan to use balcony solar stations, giving them a chance to help their local communities get a reliable and sustainable energy supply in times of war.

Research and monitoring

many Ukrainian environmental organizations, as well as Ukrainian academics and ecoactivists individually, are successfully conducting research in collaboration with European initiatives despite limited access to data. This work is crucial as some environmentally destructive processes are a ‘work in progress’ and, with proper knowledge, can be mitigated

EcoCity — citizen science model of regional cooperation

EcoCity is a network of environmental enthusiasts from 15 regions of Ukraine collecting and analyzing data about air, water, and soil pollution caused by the war. With the support of other community-based environmental research projects like Stop Poisoning Ukraine and Dovkola, EcoCity was able to create 7 types of fixed and mobile monitoring stations used by the activist network and monitor 20 different physical and chemical pollution metrics. The initiative has also developed a digital platform where members can submit and exchange data about war-related pollution.

Similarly, Dovkola and Stop Poisoning Ukraine initiatives are conducting their own independent monitoring missions employing the citizen science model. Since the beginning of the Russian invasion, these initiatives have jointly published reports on water pollution caused by the destruction of the Kakhovka Dam, war-related air pollution, and gamma radiation levels in areas adjacent to the Zaporizhia Nuclear Power Plant.

Legal fight

aimed at bringing Russia to account not only for its entirely illegal invasion and annexation of Ukraine’s territories but also for its deliberate actions causing damage to the environment. s

While Russiaʼs invasion in itself is a violation of international humanitarian law, the large-scale damage to the environment is also prohibited by the Geneva Conventions and the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, among other war crimes. Nonetheless, there has been little to no practice of bringing countries to account for environmental crimes to date, and Ukraine is now pioneering this path by building up 15 potential cases against Russia in the ICC for ecological damage caused by its invasion.

Another issue identified by Ukrainian and international experts is the absence of the crime of ‘ecocide’ in international law. Previously, countries like Vanuatu and Fiji tried to advocate for the adoption of an article on ‘ecocide’ into the Rome Statute by the ICC, and Ukraine is now continuing this fight within the framework of the ‘Ecocide Alliance.’ According to the Ukrainian MP Yuliia Ovchynnykova, who is a member of the alliance, the adoption of a ‘common and internationally recognized definition of ecocide’ is crucial for bringing Russia accountable for its environmental crimes.

Studying the Invisible

Evidently, the Russian invasion of Ukraine has brought about a complex set of issues whose effects extend well beyond Ukraine and even Europe—from threats to global food security to the irreversible loss of biodiversity of the very interlinked natural ecosystems. However, if the visible damage to Ukraine’s environment is rightfully alarming, the invisible processes of ecological destruction pose an even greater concern. As noted by several experts Vitsche spoke with, restricted monitoring capacity in the occupied territories can lead to situations where a problem becomes known only when it reaches a critical scale.

We do not have enough information about what is happening to the environment in the occupied territories until the moment when it either reaches the dimensions of an ecological disaster or when the consequences cannot be hidden…. You can more or less imagine what is happening to the environment based on a photo or some bits of information from open sources. I will repeat again, except for situations like with Kakhovka — when it is already an ecological disaster.

Anastasiia Bondarenko Civil Society Center ‘Drukarnya’

Legal Analyst specializing in emergency risk management with extensive experience in analyzing environmental and technological risks in the Donbas region, involved in working groups focused on Ukraine's recovery, particularly in the fields of environmental security and climate change

This issue applies not only to data like pollution metrics or the condition of industrial objects. We do not know and will likely never learn the exact number of victims of catastrophic events like the Kakhovka Dam destruction by Russia, or how many people and animals died due to either neglect or direct action by the Russian forces in occupation since 2014. As the Ukrainian writer Sofia Andrukhovych highlighted:

How many people died is still unknown because the main impact of the [Kakhovka] disaster occurred on the left bank of the Dnipro River, which is occupied by Russia. Russia still hides the number of victims. No one will ever count or measure how many animals, birds, fish, crustaceans, and mollusks died in those territories. What did their pain and suffering mean and what was it for, and why did they have to undergo such horror.

Sofia Andrukhovych writer

Being a prominent Ukrainian novelist, essayist, and translator, Andrukhovych sheds light on the scale of human and environmental devastation the Russian invasion has brought upon Ukraine, especially in her latest collection of essays titled “Everything That Is Human”

Considering the number of dangerous industrial facilities and energy objects in the occupied areas, including the Zaporizhia Nuclear Power Plant, such a lack of monitoring ability can bring severe consequences for the environment of the entire continent.

In the long term, the biggest problem and consequence for the environment and ecological safety is "mismanagement" at environmentally dangerous facilities in the Donetsk, Luhansk and Kherson regions. In [these] regions, traditionally, large productions of increased ecological danger were concentrated - chemical and coke-chemical production, metallurgy, GZK, chemical plant protection products, etc. There were problems with these ecologically dangerous productions even in peacetime. In the conditions of occupation, the enemy does not show any desire to take into account their ecological danger or at least prevent the spread of potential pollution from them.

Maksym Soroka "Dovkola" network

expert in ecological safety and environmental monitoring, coordinator of the "Dovkola" network, associate professor of the Ukrainian State University of Science and Technology. Maksym contributed greatly to the development of the citizen science model of environmental research in Ukraine.

The situation with the coal mines in the occupied territories is of particular concern. Coal mines that exist within a given region are closely interlinked and connected to the underlying groundwaters. This means that if one of the coal mines gets flooded due to poor maintenance, which often occurs in the occupied areas, the neighboring mines also get flooded, enriching the underlying groundwaters with heavy metals. As a result, drinking water in the surrounding regions becomes unsuitable for human consumption, and soils become inarable. Moreover, the toxic heavy metals pollution extends well beyond the regional level, spreading in the interlinked network of European rivers and in the Black Sea. As Anastasiia Bondarenko noted:

Quite often, we learned about the state of affairs in the controlled territory when negative consequences "came" from the uncontrolled territory, as was the case in Zolote, part of which was in the uncontrolled territory, and part was in the controlled Ukraine. The mines "Pervomaiska" and "Rodyna," which were located in the uncontrolled territory of the city of Zolote, began to flood the mine "Zolote," which is hydrologically connected, in 2018 there was a breakthrough of mine waters. In addition to poisoning the soil and groundwater with heavy metals, the mine water also went into the surface water — the Komyshuvakha River changed its color to an unnatural orange; it is clear that this water from the river is extremely polluted. And this is only one of, unfortunately, many examples.

Thus, ensuring the safe conservation of these coal mines, as well as the regular monitoring of all the key environmental metrics like ground and surface water pollution levels, is crucial for preventing large-scale environmental disasters from happening.

Another not-so-obvious consequence of the Russian invasion can be attributed to the shift of agricultural activities to areas further away from the frontline, as highlighted by Bohdan Kuchenko, Ekodiya’s expert on the conservation of ecosystems. As large swaths of Ukraine’s agricultural lands are now either under occupation or mined/ polluted, the increased agricultural and economic pressure on lands in the rest of Ukraine has a negative effect on the biodiversity of those areas. In Kuchenko’s own words:

The relocation of agricultural activities from the East and North of the country to safer Central and Western regions poses an issue. The ecological consequences of this process, to a large extent, are negative. More specifically, there is pressure on the natural environment since more natural resources are being used. The lands are now used for new agricultural enterprises, or, for example, some infrastructural objects are being built on the natural territories out of necessity created by the realities of war.

Bohdan Kuchenko NGO ‘Ekodiya’

Expert in Ecosystem Protection and Climate Adaptation. Being previously involved in several environmental organizations, including WWF-Ukraine and Environment People Law, Maksym has extensive experience analyzing the legal framework of ecological protection work and pursuing environmental advocacy.

The large-scale contamination of Ukraine’s lands with mines itself is a long-term issue that, for many decades, will continue killing all living beings across the area of 147,000 km2 — a territory that equals ½ of Germany. As Libkos shared from their extensive experience of photo-reporting from Ukraine’s frontline regions:

During our missions in the East [of Ukraine], we often have to evidence with our own eyes the devastation Russia brings to our lands and how mines destroy all living things. No one could tell for how long this will last, and the worst thing is that the demining process could take decades. In the meantime, our land will remain wounded, and the life on it will not return.

The mining of fields and forests turns once prosperous and peaceful places into death zones. Where crops used to be grown, hidden mines can now explode at any moment. Our beautiful forests have become traps where not only people but also animals suffer. Forests are dying along with their flora and fauna because nature simply has no chance of recovery due to mines and shelling.

Libkos a photodocumentary project

The project founders, Konstantyn and Vlada, have extensive experience taking footage from some of the most dangerous sectors of the frontline, making it possible for the world to observe the scale of human and ecological destruction while events unfold.

Libkos

Environmental Lessons from Ukraine

In the times when the global climate crisis is intensifying with a frightening speed and violent conflicts are affecting many countries across the world and causing immense human suffering, the resilience and resistance of Ukraine's civil society, environmental organizations, and activists send a clear message: nature is never a lower-priority issue. Learning how to continue performing crucial environmental protection work — to the extent it is possible — even in times of severe crises, is the most valuable thing the world can heed from Ukraine’s experience. As Bohdan Kuchenko puts it:

As for valuable experience [Ukraine can share with the world], for me, it is how community organizations or environmental institutions adapted to the new conditions of war. [...] People continued to do their important work, even in the conditions of occupation. For example, a well-known case with the biosphere reserve Askania Nova. Although it is not the only one that continued working [under occupation], it was the most effective in it because the collective continued to perform its conservation functions for over a year, including performing the reserve’s scientific activities, as long as it was possible.

And even now, while there are only technical workers who take care of the animals, although, of course, there are cases when the occupants started to transport some animals [to Russia], those who remain, as long as it is possible, continue to work with their conservation with the support of the local population, because these animals, after all, are not in completely natural conditions, and without supervision, this unique collection of animals, which was created over 100 years ago, will simply die.

While such work in the environment of occupation is a clear sign of enormous dedication and bravery, the life and safety of these workers are under severe threat as civilians living in occupation are routinely subjected to torture, unlawful detention and forcible disappearance by the Russian forces, as reported by Human Rights Watch. The increasing militarization of the protected areas, often used as exercise and missile launch sites, creates additional safety risks.

Besides, as the regional ecosystems are tightly interlinked, the work intended to mitigate the environmental effects of war is most effective when done in collaboration between countries. Joint research and restoration work relying on the expertise of both the EU and Ukrainian environmentalists is not only mutually enriching but is also more likely to be effective.

„I think it is important to support Ukrainians abroad and Ukrainian NGOs that conduct environmental action. … Do not be afraid to go beyond Lviv and Kyiv to see with your own eyes the impact of the war not only on the infrastructure but also on the environment. Get active at the community level, establish cooperation not only between countries but also between small communities, and help at the grassroots level. It can be a small initiative — to help restore a forest strip, to clear already demined territories or the shores of reservoirs, to carry out a joint calculation of the population of species that have suffered as a result of the war. … The main thing is not to be indifferent and to believe that something can be done not only at the state level.” shared Anastasiia Bondarenko.

As we explored above, the Ukrainian community of ecoactivists, researchers, and volunteers is strong and proved to be capable of taking meaningful action to protect nature and wildlife in the face of wartime challenges. However, much of this work would hardly be possible without the support of eco-conscious people from around the world. While some practical help, like participation in rescue and research missions, might not be possible for many, simply staying informed and being vocal about the environmental crimes committed by Russia is a crucial first step in helping Ukraine.