Environmental Assessment and Recovery Priorities for Eastern Ukraine
Publisher: Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe
Author(s): Nickolai Denisov and Dmytro Averin
Date: 2017
Topics: Assessment, Renewable Resources, Weapons, Waste, and Pollution
Countries: Ukraine
Armed conflict in eastern Ukraine has resulted in a regrettable range of harm to the region’s lands and terrain, its surface and subterranean water systems, and its vegetation and wildlife. Hostilities also bring a significant increase in the risk of incidents at industrial and infrastructure facilities.
Under conflict conditions the chief threat is manifest in the risk of environmental pollution resulting from major operational disruptions and related incidents occurring at industrial and other large-scale facilities. Prior to the onset of conflict, the Donetsk and Luhansk regions were home to some 4,500 potentially environmentally hazardous enterprises. Between 2014 and 2017, companies in the region reported over 500 cases of operational disruptions and related incidents, some of which were fraught with potential hazard for both the local population and the environment.