In the middle of a climate conference in Dubai, experts calculated the enormous environmental cost of the war in Ukraine caused by Russia. Moscow will also have to answer for ecocide after the destruction of the Kakhovka dam.
Fuel, fires, future reconstructions… the carbon footprint of the Russian invasion of Ukraine is estimated at 150 million tonnes of CO2 equivalent emissions, more than that of Belgium in one year, a Ukrainian deputy minister declared Monday in Dubai, based on an expert analysis.
“The war had devastating consequences on the environment, the air, land and water have been polluted because of the fighting.”said Viktoria Kireïeva, Deputy Minister of Environmental Protection and Natural Resources, on the sidelines of COP28.
This estimate was carried out by a team of experts, the Initiative on GHG Accounting of War, led by a specialist in carbon emissions, Lennard de Klerk.
“The war itself is at the origin of 25% of these emissions”detailed Mr. de Klerk during a joint press conference with the Ukrainian deputy minister, explaining that these are mainly due to the consumption of fossil fuels by the Russian and Ukrainian armies.
The numerous fires, particularly common near the front line and caused by the fighting, account for 15% of the toll, added the expert.
Emissions due to the movements of refugees, but also to the detours that civilian planes have to make to bypass areas that can no longer be flown over, were also taken into account.
Destruction of the Kakhovka dam
But 36% of the total is attributed to reconstruction of destroyed buildings and infrastructure in UkraineWho “will be the largest source of emissions in the future”, said Lennard de Klerk.
Many cities are now in ruins and rebuilding them risks being long and polluting, according to specialists.
The destruction of the Kakhovka dam alone last June in southern Ukraine caused very significant damage.
This disaster is now the subject of an official investigation for the first ecocide attributed to the Russian army.
The breakage of part of the building had caused significant flooding in the southern part of Ukrainian territory, caused dozens of deaths, and 13 billion euros in damage, according to the UN.
Moscow and Kyiv have blamed each other for this disaster, but the dam is in a zone controlled by the Russians, and the Ukrainian army believes that they were seeking to slow down a counter-offensive by flooding the region.
“We are pioneers”explains Ukrainian prosecutor Ignatenko, 32 years old. “We will use all possible methods to collect evidence.”
At the head of a team made up of ecologists and supervised by the scientific policethe magistrate, straight as an I in his military T-shirt, places his finger on a map.
soil pollution
The charge of ecocide has been included in the Ukrainian criminal code since 2001.
To investigate the consequences of the dam’s destruction, Maksym Popov, special adviser on environmental crimes to the Ukrainian Prosecutor General, deployed “172 prosecutors and 285 investigators” and intends to sue Russia “in Ukrainian and international jurisdictions”.
However, the Rome Statute governing the laws of the International Criminal Court does not provide for the crime of ecocide, but its article 8 defines war crimes damaging to the environment. And the complaint could hardly succeed, particularly because it would be necessary to prove that Russia intentionally wanted to destroy the environment.
For its complaint to be successful, Ukraine will also have to prove Russia’s responsibility for the dam explosion. “This is our belief” And “another investigation is open in this direction”assures Mr. Ignatenko, sealing soil in a bag with the police logo.
