Environmental damage from the war in Ukraine is mounting. Experts are warning about its long-term effects on human health. Toxins released by Moscow’s attacks on fuel deposits are polluting air and water, which is alarmingly threatening biodiversity, climate stability, and human health.
According to World Wildlife, the war has limited access to clean water for more than 6 million Ukrainians. Moreover, 280,000 hectares of forests have been destroyed. According to the Audit Chamber, a non-governmental organization in the country, war has cost the environment more than $37 billion.
Dmytro Evrin, an environmental expert at the Zoe Environment Network, a non-profit organization based in Switzerland, said the pollution caused by the war is irreversible. The solution will be to find our descendants. Furthermore, to reduce the effects of war, forests have to be planted, and polluted rivers have to be cleaned.
He said that although the worst-hit areas were in the eastern industrial zones of Donetsk and Luhansk, where fighting between government troops and pro-Russian separatists had been ongoing since 2014, the damage had spread elsewhere too.