Ukraine: The Environmental Health Risks of War in a Highly Industrialized Country Like Ukraine

Mar 18, 2022 | Alejandro de la Garza, Time
View Original

Vladimir Putin’s unprovoked attack on Ukraine has already caused unimaginable suffering, with millions of civilians forced to flee their homes, and thousands of others trapped under Russian shelling in cities like Mariupol. The fighting is also creating new environmental hazards, which threaten to add to the war’s human cost. Some of those environmental risks, like a release of radiation from one of Ukraine’s nuclear power plants, could have immediate and devastating consequences. Others, like carcinogenic dust from bombed buildings, are long term threats, with effects likely to reverberate for years and decades after fighting stops.