Environmental Trends in the Ukraine Conflict, 10 Days in

Mar 5, 2022 | Doug Weir
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Russia and Ukraine are major exporters of globally important agricultural commodities and fertiliser. As with oil prices, the invasion is already pushing up the prices of wheat and sunflower oil – in the latter’s case forcing India to ask Indonesia to increase the supply of palm oil. 

Russia’s initial strategy to rapidly subdue Ukraine by taking Kyiv, and occupying strategically important border regions proved unsuccessful. The strategy led to a large number of polluting strikes against military infrastructure – chiefly airbases and ammunition storage areas – in the first 48 hours. Environmentally important border areas were occupied – the Chernobyl zone in the north, and Kherson Oblast and the North Crimean Canal to the south.   

As Russian military progress has slowed, we have seen a shift to urban siege warfare, involving the use of indiscriminate heavy explosive weapons and airstrikes in order to subdue towns and cities. This is changing the pollution risks that we are seeing, from predominantly military sites, to those from industrial and commercial properties, which in places are sited close to residential areas.

The largely unprecedented nuclear dimension to this conflict has brought the role of the IAEA into sharp focus. Its members adopted a resolution deploring Russia’s actions, while its Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi has been in touch with both sides, and has been holding daily press conferences, even offering to visit Ukraine in person.