Legal Regulation of Environmental Protection during Armed Conflicts on the Example of Ukraine

Abstract

The article analyzes the impact of military operations on the state of ecosystems and individual natural resources in Ukraine. Based on the analysis of Ukrainian and foreign sources, it was made a conclusion about the catastrophic damage to the environment caused by the military aggression of the Russian Federation. In particular, the environmental damage as of September 2022 is estimated at almost 1 trillion hryvnias and continues to grow daily.
 Taking into account the fact that the impact on the environment during armed conflicts almost always has a transboundary nature, author analyzed the provisions of international acts that regulate this problem. These are the Stockholm Declaration (1972); the World Charter of Nature; the Rio Declaration on Environment and Development (1992); the Convention on the Prohibition of Military or Any Other Hostile Use of Environmental Modification Techniques; Protocol Additional to the Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949, and relating to the Protection of Victims of International Armed Conflicts; Convention on the prohibition of the development, production, stockpiling and use of chemical weapons and on their destruction. It was established that all the mentioned documents call on the international community to take measures for preventing or minimizing the destructive impact on the environment during military operations.
 The author paid particular attention to Ukrainian legislation. The Instruction on the Procedure for Implementing the Norms of International Humanitarian Law in the Armed Forces of Ukraine requires following the provisions of international humanitarian law, including, in the context of environmental protection. In the Basic Principles (Strategy) of the State Environmental Policy of Ukraine for the Period Until 2030, it is noted that it is absolutely necessary to solve the issue of access to the objects of the military-defense industrial complex in order to carry out appropriate supervision and control over compliance with environmental legislation at these objects. A separate block of normative acts is devoted to the legal regulation of the procedure and methods of determining damage and losses caused to the environment of Ukraine as a result of the armed aggression of the Russian Federation.
 Despite the fact that the war continues, the development of normative acts aimed at regulating the reconstruction of destroyed or damaged territories and objects is already being observed. The author analyzed some of them, identified shortcomings and proposed ways to eliminate them.

The legal mechanism for environmental protection in Ukraine

“…The conformity of the legal mechanism of the principles of the inevitability of punishment and the appropriateness of pun ishment to the harm caused is complicated by the fact that, firstly, there is an existing overlap of legal fields of different branches of law, and secondly, the legislative norms do not cover the entire range of environmental offenses, given the significant pace of changes in political, social, environmental conditions, there is a need to take into account new kinds and circumstances of environmental damage in the legislation. Offenses against the environment committed during hostilities make an example [12]. This is a largescale factor of negative impact on the envi ronment because, together with crimes against humanity, war crimes, crimes against the natural environment occur.…”

“…Kozmuliak [12] indicates a significant unresolved problem of the operation of legal mechanisms for environmental pro tection in times of war and postwar reconstruction. According to the analysis by Kozmuliak [12], under conditions of war, "international treaties and obligations taken by some states in relation to others are called into question".…”

“…Kozmuliak [12] indicates a significant unresolved problem of the operation of legal mechanisms for environmental pro tection in times of war and postwar reconstruction. According to the analysis by Kozmuliak [12], under conditions of war, "international treaties and obligations taken by some states in relation to others are called into question". This confirms the thesis that there is no strict correlation between crime and pun ishment even in the international law and, even more so, in its environmental aspects.…”