On Monday, Ukrainian Minister of Defence Oleksii Reznikov accused Russia of violating the Geneva Conventions by causing over $35 billion worth of environmental damage to Ukraine.
“Millions of hectares of nature preserves are under threat. Article 55 of the Protocol I prohibits waging war VS the natural environment by way of reprisals, but Russia doesn’t care,” he tweeted, referring to the 1949 Geneva Conventions’ regulation titled Protection of the Natural Environment.
The damage to the 🇺🇦 ecology caused by russia is estimated at $35.3 billion. Millions of hectares of nature preserves are under threat.Article 55 of the Protocol I prohibits waging war VS the natural environment by way of reprisals, but russia doesn’t care.#tribunal4russia
— Oleksii Reznikov (@oleksiireznikov) January 2, 2023
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GENEVA CONVENTIONS’ ARTICLE 55
Article 55 specifies: “Care shall be taken in warfare to protect the natural environment against widespread, long-term and severe damage. This protection includes a prohibition of the use of methods or means of warfare which are intended or may be expected to cause such damage to the natural environment and thereby to prejudice the health or survival of the population.”
Furthermore, as per the International Humanitarian Law Databases, attacking the environment as a means of retaliation is also proscribed under Article 55.
UKRAINE’S STATE ENVIRONMENTAL INSPECTORATE REPORTS
Last month, the Ukrainian State Environmental Inspectorate reported that the Russian invasion had polluted over 291 million square metres of land and littered more than 8 billion square metres, estimating the total damage to be worth over $12 billion.
“The destruction of Ukrainian lands is a crime against Ukraine’s environment and a global problem that carries the risk of a food crisis and the impossibility of guaranteeing food security for humanity in the future. The enemy must bear full responsibility for crimes against humanity and the environment,” it noted, referring to Russia.
In addition, in August, the Ministry of Environmental Protection and Natural Resources of Ukraine accused Russia of committing 2,000 war crimes against the country’s land, soil, and air.
“From the beginning of the large-scale invasion of the Russian Federation into Ukraine, we record all the crimes of the occupier against the environment in order to make [Russian President Vladimir Putin] pay in full for what he has done to the Ukrainian people,” the Ministry said.
He urged New Zealand to take the lead in diplomacy to address the damage.
— Gurbaksh Singh Chahal (@gchahal) December 14, 2022
ZELENSKY’S REACTION
While addressing the New Zealand parliament last month, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky revealed that about 174,000 square kilometres of land, along with the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov, were contaminated with mines and unexploded ordnance, thousands of acquatic animals died, dozens of rivers were polluted, and three million hectares of forests were impacted.
“All this and other manifestations of the Russian ecocidal policy will have direct negative repercussions for millions of people, for our region and neighboring regions,” he stated, adding, “You cannot rebuild destroyed nature. Just as you cannot restore destroyed life.”
He also called on the New Zealand government to take up “leadership” in the United Nations to hold Russia accountable for the environmental damage. “There is no real peace where the consequences of war in the form of poisoned groundwater can destroy normal life in several countries. There is no real peace where ecocide has taken place, and its consequences have not been overcome,” he asserted.