Key Points
- Eugene Simonov and other environmental activists formed Ukraine War Environmental Consequences work group soon after war began
- By August, 16 million people in Ukraine affected by poor water quality: UN report
- Over 200 industrial facilities at risk of harmful incidents that can cause contamination and environmental emergencies
At the recent United Nations climate summit in Egypt, former US Vice-President and 2007 Nobel Peace laureate Al Gore called on the international community to move beyond the era of "fossil fuel colonialism".
He urged wealthy nations to not use the war in Ukraine as an excuse to lock in long-term commitments for more dependence on fossil fuels.
However, the current energy crisis and the record-high gas and oil prices across the world are just some of the far-reaching consequences of the war in Ukraine.
Endorsing this point is Canberra-based environmental activist and journalist Eugene Simonov.
"It’s hard to find a sphere not impacted by this war," he tells SBS Russian. A Russian environmental activist of 35 years, Mr Simonov is a recipient of the Whitley Environmental Award from the UK.
Soon after Russia waged war on Ukraine, Mr Simonov and his colleagues established — Ukraine War Environmental Consequences work group. The group, spread from Canberra to Kyiv, is aimed at monitoring and analysing the environmental consequences of the war.
The war helped certain corporations to resurface their worst and secret intentions, the intentions they already had long before Russia invaded Ukraine.Eugene Simonov
Researchers, journalists and ecological activists behind UWEC are originally from Ukraine, Belarus and Russia. However, currently most of them are living in other countries.
Mr Simonov is now in Australia, while back home in Russia he has been proclaimed a “foreign agent”.
But as he points out, the nationalities or geographical locations of the team members matter the least. He explains that the group’s mission is not to unite anyone, but rather “do the necessary job”.
"[Their] country of residence matters only in the sense of our ability to gather information.
"For example, my colleagues in Ukraine are under regular shelling and their lives are under constant risk. Our editorial meetings are often rescheduled because colleagues in Ukraine don’t have electricity.
It’s not uncommon for our meetings to start with words like — ‘Russia launched 50 missiles towards us, but luckily 44 were shot down’ — and then the meeting continues.
A cluster ammunition rocket lies on a sunflower field at sunset in the recently retaken area of Kharkiv region, Ukraine, Friday, Sept. 23, 2022 Credit: AAP Image/AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka
Poisoned soil and water
Mr Simonov explains that direct consequences of bombings are amongst the main concerns of the group.
Large-scale bomb shelling not only damages the landscape, but also sheds large amounts of extremely toxic substances. These are difficult to remove and might stay in the soil for decades.
Additionally more than 200 industrial facilities in Ukraine have been attacked since the start of the war, causing a higher risk of contamination and environmental emergencies.
Mr Simonov says the UWEC group has a special focus on water quality and river basins.
Water supply systems and sewer systems have been destroyed. A significant part of sewage water flows back into nearest rivers untreated.
As for drinking water, the occupied territories are of highest concern.
A significant part of the population there does not have access to drinking water of acceptable quality, and in some cases, the situation is on the verge of an epidemiological catastrophe.
, by August 2022, 16 million people all over Ukraine were affected by poor water quality.
Mr Simonov adds that it's important to be careful with reports of possible epidemics. He explains that the water quality sometimes is used by the two sides as a tool for creating more tension.
“At one point, there were reports in the media about a cholera outbreak in Mariupol [in Ukraine]. The situation there was indeed drastic and an outbreak was possible. But on the other hand, the issue was used for resolving some tactical issues related to military operations or accessing humanitarian forces," he explains.
There are also other long-term issues related to the management of shared river basins.
Mr Simonov says that approximately 70 per cent of the population of Ukraine depends on the rivers that flow through other countries and mainly those involved in the war.
One of those, for example, is river Donets, which flows from Russia to Ukraine and then back to Russia. The two countries cannot talk to each other, measure the quality of the water and exchange information. However, these processes are crucial for the management of the Donets basin.
A man pumps water in front of a destroyed house in the recently-recaptured town of Lyman, Ukraine on 3 October. Residents have been without electricity, gas and running water since May. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka) Source: AP / Evgeniy Maloletka
Environmental regulations relaxed
In March, Jair Bolsonaro, the then president of Brazil as a reason to bring back a bill from 2020. The bill proposed cutting down forests of the Amazon.
Mr Simonov says that Mr Bolsonaro claimed Brazil would have to produce fertilisers locally and therefore the Amazon's indigenous lands had to be given away for mining.
However, the scientific community quickly published data proving that only 1.5 per cent of the resources for fertilisers are located in the Amazon region.
The bill was eventually dropped and Brazil resumed buying fertilisers from Russia and Belarus.
Other countries around the world saw a similar development.
Due to the rise in food prices, the EU eased restrictions protecting rare ecosystems.
At the same time, Ukraine allowed to lease fallow agricultural lands in order to support continuous food production. Some of these lands are .
According to Mr Simonov, the Russian government also used the war as an excuse to ease regulations and give more access to natural resources.
The environment is supposed to compensate the negative consequences of the war.
At the start of the war, the Russian Ministry of Defence drafted a regulation allowing it to cut forests for defence purposes and transport the wood towards undisclosed locations.
The draft was never approved because of a big public backlash led by Mr Simonov and his colleagues.
We wrote a lot of funny reviews. We were trying to guess what exactly Russian generals are going to do with the forests.
"For example, there used to be this military defence technique in the old days in Russia. Dense forest was cut down and the trunks were used to block the enemy out. Those were called 'notches'. We reviewed the proposed bill, analysing whether it's useful for construction of such notches," he tells SBS Russian.
Other amendments, however, did come into force. For example, routine inspections of enterprises were cancelled allowing for a huge amount of pollution to remain undetected.
A wheat field burns after Russian shelling a few kilometers from the Ukrainian-Russian border in the Kharkiv region of Ukraine on 29 July. Source: AP / Evgeniy Maloletka/AP/AAP Image
Persecution of environmental activists
Along with pressure on the environment, there is now added pressure on environmental activists in Russia and Belarus.
Mr Simonov says that environmental activists are persecuted by the governments, while at the same time, halted international cooperation and funding has created additional challenges.
Those who dare to speak out against the war publicly face even greater danger.
In late October, Arshak Makichyan, a famous environmental activist and war critic, . Mr Makichyan, an ethnic Armenian, holds no other citizenship.
He says that this is a “new tool of oppression” by the Russian government against any citizen with a different ethnic background.
Russian environmental activists are fined for “discreditation of the Russian army” .
Others like Mr Simonov are enlisted as “foreign agents” by the Russian Ministry of Justice.
According to the Ministry, personal details of the “foreign agents” . That includes their taxpayer identification number and their Russian equivalent of a social security number.
But Mr Simonov can still see a silver lining.
He thinks it’s better that he was given this label instead of any other activist who might be less professionally or financially stable.
He says he is determined to continue his work. He strongly believes that UWEC’s work is crucial for the future rebuilding of post-war Ukraine.
Despite serious environmental consequences, the priority of environmental problems and environmental rights has significantly decreased.
"War allows irresponsible long-term decisions to be made. That is actually the main horror of the current situation," he signs off.
