Ukraine’s Energy Security Can’t Come at the Cost of the Environment

Nov 14, 2023 | Darya Tsymbalyuk
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In my hometown of Mykolaiv this summer, I met environmental scholar Inna Tymchenko. She is leading a campaign to preserve parts of a nearby national park, Buzkyi Gard, from flooding by a local nuclear power complex. Buzkyi Gard is situated around granite canyons and the rapids of the Southern Buh river – an unusual landscape amid the otherwise plain grasslands of southern Ukraine. It might seem to those following the news that nothing in Ukraine exists outside of Russia’s war. It’s true that war encompasses all areas of life – but other struggles, such as for environmental or gender rights, continue too. Often chronically underfunded, Ukraine’s ecological initiatives and institutions are working in even tougher conditions as a result of Russia’s full-scale invasion.

Environmental and local communities have been fighting for the preservation of Buzkyi Gard and the Southern Buh river for more than 40 years. Despite all this, environmentalists continue fighting for the life of ecosystems. In times of global climate emergency, Ukraine, like everywhere, deserves hope for a greener future and environmental justice.