Moreover, many particles enter the atmosphere after explosions, so polluting the sky not only over Ukraine but over the entire planet. At the same time, we are talking not only about sulfuric acid but also about heavy metals.

Sofiya Sadohurska, an expert in the climate department of the Ecodiya NGO, in a conversation with Zaborona, emphasizes that the pollution provoked by the hostilities is directly related to the growth of various serious diseases.

Since February 24, the Ecodiya NGO has been recording cases of pollution and environmental impact. Some of these cases relate to environmental crimes. From the first days, shelling and bombing of industrial and energy facilities, arson of forests, explosions of oil depots, and pollution of the Black and Azov Seas (primarily due to the flooding of ships) were recorded.

Also on February 24, an enemy shell exploded on the territory of the Trypilska TPP, which is located on the Dnipro river bank 45 km south of Kyiv and is the largest supplier of electricity to the Kyiv, Cherkasy, and Zhytomyr regions.

According to the expert, these and other actions of the Russian army on the territory of Ukraine can be considered ecocide, and such a term has even been introduced into Ukrainian legislation. Of course, some of Russia's actions during the war may not be classified as ecocide, but they also have a very heavy impact on the environment. Ecodiya has already counted 277 cases.

"According to the data that we have, the largest number of cases of environmental impact was recorded in the Luhansk, Donetsk, Kharkiv, and Kyiv regions. These are the areas where active hostilities directly took place and are going on. But also in almost every region of Ukraine, there are certain recorded cases of environmental pollution. Each explosion of an oil depot, industrial facilities, chemical plants, damage to fertilizer tanks - all this can and does pose a threat to the environment and human health throughout Ukraine, "explains Sadohurska.

Do not forget about the radiation threat, which has not lost its relevance even 36 years after the accident at the Chornobyl nuclear power plant. In the early days of the Russian invasion, gamma radiation in the Chornobyl zone was about 28 times the annual limit. This happened as a result of the movement of heavy vehicles during the advance of Russian troops, who kept the nuclear power plant under their control for more than a month.

Military operations on the territory of Ukraine will harm neighboring countries, the expert emphasizes. Atmospheric pollution and especially water pollution will manifest themselves not only within Ukraine. All water resources are moving objects, which means that polluted water from rivers and lakes will sooner or later fall into the sea.

"Even now, experts are recording the pollution of the sea and marine ecosystems. In particular, scientists talk about the negative consequences of an oil spill, which can affect not only the coast of Ukraine but neighboring countries. If we talk about the Black Sea, there are already data on dolphins beaching themselves near Turkey, Bulgaria, and Romania. In particular, the situation is associated with the constant movement of Russian ships in the Black Sea and the use of sonar, which affects marine mammals. Mines and underwater explosions can also threaten dolphins", says Sadohurska. "As we can see, the fact that the war is taking place on the territory of Ukraine has a significant impact on neighboring countries. And not even in the long term, but today."

Doug Weir, research and policy director at Britain's Conflict and Environment Observatory (CEOBS), explains that the location of war and its duration have their characteristics and consequences on the environment. If terrorist attacks and similar incidents cause direct damage to the environment, then long-term wars also lead to social changes.

In a conversation with Zaborona, Weir draws attention to the fact that the world today has witnessed policies that could negatively affect the European environment. As an example, he cites the food crisis caused by the Russian invasion of Ukraine, which diverts attention from decisions aimed at improving biodiversity. At the same time, world governments are once again turning their attention to the environmental consequences of war. This is also important in the context of the completion of new norms of UN international law on the protection of the environment in connection with armed conflicts. According to the expert, this is the only positive moment in the current situation.

Ecodiya experts believe that after the end of the war, it will be necessary to work according to the principles of green restoration: first of all, the environment, then resources - sand, gravel, and wood. All this should be extracted so as not to harm the environment even more.

According to Sadohurska, it will not be possible to quickly clear the territory. Issues of environmental pollution will be raised for several generations. And Ukrainians will feel the impact of pollution for a very long time. It is important to record the impact of the Russian invasion and its consequences to know what will need to be worked on after the war.

"Lawyers and experts are already discussing compensation issues. And they explain that it is critical to record all the effects of war on the environment. The experience of other countries shows that information should be collected now to make it easier to confirm the negative impact later. Unfortunately, we will be able to assess the impact and understand the full scale only after the war," says the expert.

Although Ecodiya did not investigate the issue of waste disposal, Sadohurska notes that the Ukrainian Ministries of Community and Territory Development and the Ministry of the Environment are developing programs to understand the mechanisms for recycling and reusing waste after the war. For example, some construction waste can be used to restore the country.

"What cannot be used will be disposed of. But, first of all, it is important to dispose of everything so that the residues do not harm the environment in the future," Sadohurska sums up.

"There is international experience with garbage from places like Mosul and Aleppo, but the scale and urgency of recovery in Ukraine may mean that environmental standards are not as high as they should be," Weir said. "In the case of damaged military vehicles, this will be a difficult undertaking, many of them will contain dangerous chemicals or explosive residues that need to be handled properly."

In addition to the environmental situation, the agricultural sector was also in question. Due to the war, a significant amount of land where crops were previously sown is now either under temporary occupation or has become the site of hostilities or the place for the movement of Russian troops. However, to date, all vacant plots have been sown with grain in full, explains Mariya Kolesnyk, deputy director of ProAgro Group, in a conversation with Zaborona.

However, starting from 2022, the Ukrainian agricultural sector has been significantly affected by Russian aggression. According to the deputy director of ProAgro Group, 25 million tons of grain remained from the last harvest in Ukraine. Until July 1, 2022, this grain had to be exported, but Ukraine was unable to do this due to the Russians blocking ports in Odesa and temporarily occupying ports in Berdyansk.

Also, according to the expert, at the beginning of the year in Ukraine, there were about 55 million grain storage capacities, of which 13 million have already been lost. Partly they were bombed by the Russians, partly they are in the occupied territories. That is, part of the capacity is lost, it is impossible to take out grain from the ports, while all the other elevators are filled with old grain. At the end of June, a new crop will begin to arrive - it will be a little less than last year since farmers sowed grain in the spring in full and wherever possible. But Ukraine simply cannot sell it.

"Russia is stealing the grain that is still in the ports. Today there are official thefts. Russia is proud of it, it exports grain from Kherson, Donetsk region. Some countries refused to buy it, including Lebanon and Egypt. Our Ministry of Foreign Affairs expressed a note of protest, and so these countries refused to buy. But there is Syria, which is ready to buy everything and become such a transshipment hub in order to "whitewash" this grain and further transport it around the region," Kolesnyk emphasizes.

Before the full-scale invasion, Ukraine had a wide logistics and geography to export its products. Its importers were not only EU countries - grain and wheat went to the Middle East and North Africa (Tunisia, Egypt, Bangladesh, India). But due to the closure and mining of ports by Russia, some of these countries may not receive the necessary grain, which may turn into a food crisis for them.

Mariya Kolesnyk notes that Europe (particularly Spain, Portugal, and the Netherlands) consumed only corn. In the export of wheat to North Africa and Asian countries, Ukraine competed with France. Moreover, in recent years, Ukraine has increased its presence in the grain market in China. That is, in fact, the EU countries will not suffer as much from the Russian invasion as the most vulnerable countries in Africa.

"Although we do not have ports now, we are trying to transport products by trains. There is a significant problem that our trains cannot transport all the grain to Europe and then to European ports. It's just physically impossible. Now, these trains will try to take out approximately one and a half million tons of export per month. But we need to transport 7 million. Imagine how difficult it is. The volumes that we cannot export are what the world is not getting. That is, our 25 million tons are just lying here, and we will not eat them inside the country," Kolesnyk notes.

She also draws attention to the fact that the food crisis in the world existed before February 24, but now, with the rise in grain prices, it is only getting worse. Russia, on the other hand, uses grain as a weapon and as a lever of pressure to lift sanctions from the country.

"The problem is that in Europe about 10% of the cargo is transported by trains, the railway is not such a significant channel for transportation for them. And we want to move our volume of grain into this narrow channel. Because it will cost its weight in gold to transport grain to Rotterdam," concludes Kolesnyk.

For a long time, Ukraine tried to separate from the energy systems of Belarus and Russia. And only on the eve of a full-scale invasion, this plan was implemented, says Kostiantyn Krynytskyi, head of the energy department of the Ecodiya NGO. Ukraine began to plan the separation process in 2017. A lot of money was invested in technical modernization and improvement of the system structure.

According to the expert, all three weeks in isolation after the disconnection from Russia and Belarus went well. The Ukrainian energy system coped without accidents or strong drops. This was a surprise both for Ukrainian power engineers and for European ones.

And already on March 16, Ukraine became a member of the so-called energy European Union - we joined the ENTSO-E European energy system. Zaborona previously reported on the main advantages of European energy integration. However, Krynytskyi notes that the connection is partial, and the Ukrainian energy system is still not fully integrated. In the event of an accident or breakdown at coal and nuclear thermal power plants, Europe in an emergency can support the Ukrainian energy system and provide electricity.

"Thus, we have secured ourselves in case of Russia bombs all our thermal power plants and nuclear power plants. In this situation, we will at least have electricity in our homes. However, more work is now required to modernize our energy system so that we can buy and sell electricity on commercial terms. The [Ukraine's] Ministry of Energy is counting on this since this is one of the components of replenishing the state budget. But all this is planned after the end of the war. Today, Ukraine is cooperating with the Poles to expand our ability to import electricity to the EU," adds Krynytskyi.

For more than 100 days of the war, the Kremenchuhska, Okhtyrska, and Luhanska thermal power plants were destroyed in Ukraine. Zaporizhzhya and Slovyansk thermal power plants have suspended their work. The expert notes that now in Ukraine the demand for electricity has decreased due to the war and the needlessness of heating, so there is more of it inside the country than needed. And although the extraction of coal used by the thermal power plant as fuel continues, Ecodia and other public organizations have been considering the possibility of decommissioning part of the mines for some time.

"Over the past four years, we have been working with coal towns in the Donetsk region — Pokrovsk, Dobropillia, Myrnohrad, and other cities in the Donetsk region — to transform their economies in the event of a future closure of coal mines. We communicated with local authorities, and [discussed] what are the options for the local economy and what they can be switched to in order to ensure energy efficiency. For example, mines in Myrnohrad are still working and production has even slightly increased. But at the same time, some mines were flooded at the beginning of the war, and I don't think that they can be reanimated and brought back to life. There is also a study on the possibility of abandoning coal [in Ukraine] until 2030 and replacing it with renewable sources. The study showed that it is possible to close a third of the coal stations in Ukraine, and no one would feel a thing," says Krynytskyi.

In his opinion, now Ukraine should develop decentralized energy generation. That is, not to create large stations, but to focus on small individual communities and use renewable energy sources for them: sun, wind, water, and biomass.

A separate issue is preparation for the heating season. While the war is going on, it is not clear which energy capacities will work exactly. President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky noted that Ukraine is already preparing for the heating season, and this year all domestic gas and coal production will not be sold abroad.

"The Ministry of Energy is now trying to make oil and gas production the basis of Ukraine's energy independence. As an NGO, we do not agree with this. We emphasize that energy must be renewable. But while the war is going on, the opportunities for strategic advocacy are somewhat limited. At the same time, the state needs to decide what our energy system will be like in the long term. When we get the status of an EU candidate, the transition to renewable energy should accelerate, because this is one of the main EU energy policies - the European Green Deal," says Krynytskyi.

Kostiantyn Krynytskyi believes that yes, it is possible. But, in his opinion, it is important not to replace the oil and gas of one country with another, but to gradually introduce energy-efficient means, and reduce the consumption and use of gas and oil in the EU.

"First, you need to reduce energy consumption and use, then switch to renewable energy sources (RES). The EU has presented its RepowerEU plan, where they want to increase their use of the green (renewable) generation (RES) soon. But in this plan, the use of a small amount of gas, oil, and nuclear energy is still prescribed. For the EU, on the one hand, this is a replacement of the supplier of fossil fuels, that is, the rejection of Russia's resources. On the other hand, this means the development of green energy.

However, there must be prioritization, and the country must choose. For example, there is Russian oil and there is Qatari oil, the regime in Qatar is not much better than in Russia, and who knows where this money will go, maybe for another war," explains Krynytskyi.

The expert hopes that the European Union will take a more prudent approach to phasing out fossil fuels. Even before the war, there were discussions about making gas a transitional energy source between fossil and green fuels. However, if not for the war, the transition would have been with Russian gas.

According to Doug Weir, the situation in Ukraine has made most politicians think about the insecurity that dependence on fossil fuels creates. However, the expert is not sure whether they have the wisdom and courage to accelerate the transition to renewable energy sources: "The Russian invasion, financed by oil and gas, should be a wake-up call for Europe and the whole world.

Dependence on fossil fuels makes us more politically exposed and accelerates the climate crisis, our collective security requires us to accelerate the transition to renewable energy."

Although Ukraine is demanding an immediate withdrawal of Russian energy resources, this will not happen quickly. The coal ban will start working only from August 2022, that is, Russia continues to receive funds today. An oil embargo might start next year, and a gas embargo is not being considered at all.