25-04-2025
Ukraine's Black Sea coast is suffering from war damage, affecting birds and marine life
World
The war in Ukraine has contaminated huge swathes of its territory but ecologists fear the damage is not contained to just land, but in the ocean as well.
Ukraine's Tuzlivski Lymany National Nature Park, with its 44km-long sandbar and 13 estuaries, is a haven for nearly a million migratory birds.
But the sanctuary is under threat.
The nature reserve, situated on a narrow strip of the Black Sea, is among Ukraine's wildlife parks sustaining environmental impact from the ongoing war.
Ukraine has been fighting to fend off Russian forces since Moscow launched a full-scale invasion in 2022.
Ivan Rusev, head of the park's science department, has been studying the impact of war on the park's wildlife.
He said 30,000 birds have died since December 2024 following an oil spill caused by two Russian tankers in the Black Sea's Kerch Strait.
Rusev also blamed Russian drones for spooking flamingos, forcing them to abandon their nests and giving gulls the opportunity to decimate last year's colony.
'Drones, they stay (for) one or two minutes but during this period, very aggressive gulls, like yellow-legged gulls, come to this colony and destroy all the nests,' he said. '400 nests were destroyed fully by these gulls.'
Rusev added that while drones and missiles pose a threat from the air, mines and sonar are harming sea life.
The scientist said it is stressful to work when there is ongoing bombing.
'We saw so many dolphins, dead dolphins on the shoreline,' said Rusev, adding that dolphin carcasses have become an increasingly common sight along the Black Sea coast.
Researchers estimate that at least 80,000 dolphins in the Black Sea have died as a direct result of the war.
The death of such marine life is just one example of what park researchers call environmental war crimes committed by Moscow. Animals walk next to defensive barriers installed at Ukraine's Tuzlivski Lymany National Nature Park.
The park is currently closed to the public due to security concerns, but researchers, including its director Iryna Vykhrystiuk, are staying to document these alleged crimes.
She said it is their duty to collect information on the environmental damage and inform the world as much as possible. HEAVY COST OF ECOCIDE
The presence of mines in Ukraine's economic zone has restricted commercial fishing, with many restaurants in the port city of Odesa relying on imports.
Scientists and activists also said the impact of the 2023 Kakhovka dam explosion on the Dnipro River could last for decades, even if the war ended tomorrow.
The Dnipro is a major river that flows through Ukraine and empties into the Black Sea.
Vladislav Balinskiy, head of environmental advocacy group Green Leaf, said activists noticed a huge increase in pollutant concentrations such as heavy metals, pesticides and other contaminants.
Ukrainian prosecutors are investigating 247 cases of environmental war crimes with 14 classified as ecocide – mass destruction of the environment, including the destruction of the Kakhovka dam.
The estimated cost of the damage exceeds US$85 billion.
Ecologist Oleg Listopad from the National Interests Advocacy Network said tapping into frozen Russian assets is necessary to fund rehabilitation efforts.
'We know there are US$300 million frozen in European banks. It is Russian money... let us use them,' said the environmental expert.
