Conflict-related environmental damages on health: lessons learned from the past wars and ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine

Abstract

On 24 February 2022, Russian military forces invaded Ukraine. The fighting has already caused unimaginable conditions and millions of people were forced to flee their homes. For decades, conflicts have been linked to environmental pollution, exposure to radioactivity and heavy metals as well as infectious diseases. The invasion may cause specific environmental risks, like the release of radioactive substances from nuclear power plants and contaminated soils. Because international collaboration is one of the most effective ways to address environmental problems, it is critical to establish scientific bodies within a global framework to identify concrete actions and tangible measures to provide immediate assistance to citizens. This commentary discusses the above issues from lessons learned from the past wars and the way forward in the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

The Use of Remote Sensing Data for Investigation of Environmental Consequences of Russia-Ukraine War

“…A variety of negative consequences of the environmental pollution of this war was also described in recently published article (Harada et al, 2022). The smoke resulting from explosions contain toxic gases and particulate matters that spread and migrate contaminating water and soil.…”

“…The additional impact was of dust from military vehicle. As a result, the level of gamma radiation near Chornobyl nuclear power plant became higher than before (Harada et al, 2022).…”

“…The large-scale consequences on environment caused by Russian war is hard to estimate using only common techniques and methods (Harada et al, 2022). With this work we hypothesize that the negative effects of wars on a large-scale is possible to asses properly using remote sensing data.…”

Rivers and Water Systems as Weapons and Casualties of the Russia‐Ukraine War

“…Over the past several months, new information about the Russia-Ukraine war and its environmental consequences has become available (Harada et al, 2022;Khilchevskyi, 2022;Pereira et al, 2022;Rawtani et al, 2022;Shumilova et al, 2023;V. Vyshnevskyi et al, 2023;Zheleznyak et al, 2022).…”

“…Over the past several months, new information about the Russia‐Ukraine war and its environmental consequences has become available (Harada et al., 2022; Khilchevskyi, 2022; Pereira et al., 2022; Rawtani et al., 2022; Shevchuk et al., 2022; Shevchuk & Vyshnevskyi, 2022; Shumilova et al., 2023; V. Vyshnevskyi et al., 2023; Zheleznyak et al., 2022). In many cases, the main source of primary information about military events was and remains visual observation and local media reports.…”