UWEC Work Group

3/ #Wildlife suffers colossal losses, but the paradox of war is that where humans and hunting have disappeared, individual species may begin to recover. The price of this "balance" is destroyed ecosystems.

🔗 Read more: uwecworkgroup.info/how-warfare-...

Fiber-optic web: How the use of drones on the frontlines impacts the environment – Ukraine War Environmental Consequences Work Group Inha Pavlyi Relatively recently, a new technology for unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) appeared on the frontlines in Russia’s war in Ukraine: fiber-optic linked guidance. When a drone is launched forwa...

2/ Added to this are new pollutants—fiber optics from drones that take centuries to decompose and are already killing animals:
uwecworkgroup.info/fiber-optic-...

1/🌾 #War destroys not only cities but also soils, fields, and ecosystems. Up to a third of Ukraine's arable land has been affected by military action: craters, mines, sulfur, and heavy metals make some areas unsafe for agriculture for decades to come.

🔗: uwecworkgroup.info/how-warfare-...

5/ 🔗 Read more on the UWEC website:
uwecworkgroup.info/us-exit-from...

4/ 💬 For example, it's unclear whether organizations such as the Commission for Environmental Cooperation in North America, which united Canada, the United States, and Mexico, or the Science & Technology Center in Ukraine, established in 1993 by #Ukraine, the U.S., Sweden, and Canada, will survive.

3/ 💬 "Most of the 66 organizations the USA has left were created and developed with significant American financial contributions, scientific input, and diplomatic influence. The greatest damage will be done to smaller regional agreements where US participation was a decisive factor"

2/ 💬 “The demarche undertaken by Trump not only destabilizes the system of international institutions for cooperation on sustainable development, but above all undermines the role of the United States as an authoritative global leader,” @uwecworkgroup.bsky.social expert Eugene Simonov says.

1/ 🧐 Scientists are concerned about the U.S. withdrawal from regional #environmental agreements, which may cease to exist altogether without U.S. participation

🔗 Read more:
uwecworkgroup.info/us-exit-from...

2/ The #UkraineWar has caused wide, long-lasting ecological harm – rivers and seas polluted, forests burned, farmland contaminated.

Protecting #nature during war isn’t optional; it’s a defense task that needs law, funding and public action now.

Read more: uwecworkgroup.info/environmenta...

Environmental security: a key element of Ukraine’s national policy – Ukraine War Environmental Consequences Work Group Polina Tsybulska As war and climate change inflict damage on Ukraine’s environment, from polluting rivers and soils to destroying ecosystems, how could these threats be transformed into tools for resi...

1/ 🛡️ Imagine clean air, safe rivers and fertile fields – then imagine them poisoned by war.

#Environmental security in #Ukraine is now a front line: toxic spills, fires, damaged dams and mines threaten health, food and cross-border ecosystems.

🔗: uwecworkgroup.info/environmenta...

3/ At the same time, according to all documents, the ruins are actually cities, meaning there will be many interested parties involved in rebuilding the destroyed cities.

🔗 Read more on the UWEC website:
uwecworkgroup.info/ukraines-rui...

Caution, mines! The future of mined landscapes – Ukraine War Environmental Consequences Work Group Oleksiy Vasyliuk UWEC Work Group previously examined the environmental impacts of minefields and munitions contamination for Ukraine. Military action spreads explosive objects over very large areas on...

2/ The complex dismantling of the ruins of city-forming enterprises will require enormous budgets, demining the country will take decades, and many residents have already settled in new places.
uwecworkgroup.info/caution-mine...

1/ 👀 Is it possible to completely rebuild Ukrainian cities reduced to rubble by #Russia?

History knows examples of post-war reconstruction, but the current scale of destruction in #Ukraine casts doubt on them.

🔗 Read more:
uwecworkgroup.info/ukraines-rui...

6/ For that reason, he adds, #Ukraine is documenting instances of “ecocide”, in the hope that the international criminal court will recognise Russian crimes against the environment as war crimes when the conflict concludes.
uwecworkgroup.info/occupied-agr...

Danger! Mines! The terrible environmental and human cost of Ukraine’s minefields – Ukraine War Environmental Consequences Work Group Oleksiy Vasyliuk Almost three years into Russia’s full-scale invasion, Ukraine is now the most heavily mined country on earth, with up to 26% of its territory thought to contain mines and unexploded o...

5/ “This territory will be inaccessible to us for many decades, or maybe even centuries” because it has been heavily mined, he says.
uwecworkgroup.info/danger-mines...

Russia selling off rare animals from Ukraine’s Askania-Nova nature reserve – Ukraine War Environmental Consequences Work Group Olha Tkach A new investigation shows that Russian-installed authorities in southeastern Ukraine have been illegally removing animals from one of the country’s oldest and most important steppeland rese...

4/ He adds that the country’s largest national parks and reserves, including one of the world’s oldest steppe reserves, #AskaniaNova, are primarily in that zone and have fallen under occupation.
uwecworkgroup.info/russia-selli...

3/ 💬 “This territory that is taken, it’s almost 40% of all the agricultural land of #Ukraine,” says Oleksii Vasyliuk, a zoologist and member of @uwecworkgroup.bsky.social

2/ Although #Ukraine covers less than 6% of Europe’s landmass, it is home to about 35% of the continent’s biodiversity. Many of the country’s rare and endemic species are located in the steppe zone and along Crimea’s coasts and mountains.

‘Nothing is sacred to them’: the race to save rare plants as Russian troops advance With some of Ukraine’s most valuable biodiversity sites and science facilities under occupation, experts at Sofiyivka Park in Uman are struggling to preserve the country’s natural history

1/ UWEC is back on @theguardian.com!

theguardian.com/environment/...

While the country’s eastern regions now under Russian occupation are primarily industrial areas, the southern expanse of #Crimea and #Kherson has historically been central to agriculture, botany and biodiversity. ⬇️

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📩 The latest issue, number 32, has already been published on our website:
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Environmental Consequences of the War in Ukraine—October-November 2025 – Ukraine War Environmental Consequences Work Group Alexej Ovchinnikov Each month, the UWEC editorial team shares highlights of recent media coverage and analysis of the Ukraine war’s environmental consequences with our readers. As always, we welcome r...

7/ UWEC continues to monitor developments around #Chernobyl.

🔗 For more information on #Greenpeace's expedition, see the Oct-Nov 2025 Review of the war's #environmental consequences in #Ukraine:
uwecworkgroup.info/environmenta...

6/ 💬 “Ukrainian nuclear facilities must cease to be targets in Russia's war. The international community must take action to protect them and hold #Russia accountable for its deliberate nuclear threats,” said Shaun Burnie, senior nuclear energy specialist at #Greenpeace #Ukraine

5/ In the fall of 2025, #Greenpeace #Ukraine organized its 3rd expedition to the #Chornobyl zone since 2022 to support Ukrainian scientists studying radioactive contamination and to assess the damage from the February attack.

4/ 🤷‍♂️ A Dec 5 @iaeaorg.bsky.social statement reported that the NSC “lost its main safety functions, including the ability to contain #radioactive substances.” At the same time, it was established that “the supporting structures and monitoring systems didn't suffer permanent damage”.

3/ As a result of a Feb 2025 drone attack set fire to its New Safe Confinement (NSC) — a structure to isolate radiation emissions covering the #nuclear plant's damaged power unit.

2/ The #Chornobyl NPP and the surrounding radiation contamination zone were occupied at the very beginning of #Russia's full-scale invasion. In 2023, its territory was liberated by #Ukrainian troops, but the military impact on the radiation safety facility did not stop.

1/ ‼️ January 20, 2026: The #Chornobyl Nuclear Power Plant has completely lost its external power supply as a result of large-scale military activity, according to the
@iaeaorg.bsky.social

Environmental Consequences of the War in Ukraine—October-November 2025 – Ukraine War Environmental Consequences Work Group Alexej Ovchinnikov Each month, the UWEC editorial team shares highlights of recent media coverage and analysis of the Ukraine war’s environmental consequences with our readers. As always, we welcome r...

6/ 🔗 More details can be found in our regular review of the environmental consequences of the #war in #Ukraine for October-November 2025:
uwecworkgroup.info/environmenta...

5/ ❗️ With glaciers melting due to #climatechange, the Arctic Ocean is becoming more accessible and is now seen by #Russia as an “internal sea” to be used as a trade route and resource base. This can be not only seen to “strengthen” Russia but also poses a danger to all of humanity.

4/ In the north, #Russia also considers a significant part of the #Arctic as its territory and is seeking permission from the #UN (primarily from member states Canada and Denmark) to extend its “continental shelf” northward in order to gain exclusive rights to access resources.