Ukraine: Environmental damage a war crime

They are images that travel around the world. On June 6, 2024, the Novokakhovka Dam in southeastern Ukraine exploded. A huge amount of water rushed at full speed for several kilometers, destroying towns. Tens of thousands of people were affected. The exact death toll has not yet been confirmed.

About 600 tons of crude oil leaked from the damaged industrial facilities. UN experts said that the chemicals produced by the destroyed factories also seriously polluted the water, soil, ecosystems and farmland surfaces. This is not only a human disaster, but also an ecological disaster.

Now, the explosion of the Novokakhovka Dam could become the subject of a historic lawsuit against Russia. Ukrainian authorities are gathering evidence to ask the International Criminal Court (ICC) to try Russia for war crimes. It also concerns the environmental damage caused by the act of war. Ukraine accuses Russia of causing the explosion, but Russia denies it.

“The environment can no longer be a silent victim of war,” Ruslan Strilets, Ukraine’s minister of environmental protection and natural resources, told DW. “Humanity must understand that war is expensive. Every country must understand that war is expensive. The destruction of the environment is expensive.”

What does Ukraine want?

The dam explosion and flooding are just some of the many ecological crimes being investigated in Ukraine, which could be part of a case against Russia. Ukrainian authorities estimate the damage to soil, forests, air and water to date at more than €57 billion. By the end of 2023, nearly 500 of the country’s sewage treatment plants had been destroyed and at least 20% of its nature reserves were threatened. Ukraine’s Prosecutor General Andrij Kostin hopes to have a framework for prosecution ready by the end of 2024.

“In many areas the extent of pollution and damage is almost impossible to estimate because data collection is extremely difficult,” said Oleksii Vasyliuk, director of the environmental group Nature Conservancy.

Soil test analyses conducted so far by the NGO Eco-Action show that all soil in the disputed Donbass region is contaminated with highly toxic heavy metals. In some cases, levels of mercury, vanadium and cadmium are more than a hundred times the normal level. Heavy metals are highly toxic in high concentrations because they accumulate in the body and are generally unable to break down.

Ukrainian Environment Minister Strilets stressed that Russia should be judged for this. In addition, they hope to set a precedent and develop appropriate international enforcement procedures so that in the future wars at the expense of the environment will not go unpunished.

However, Aaron Dumont, who studies environmental issues in international law at Ruhr University Bochum in western Germany, said if the ICC accepted the process, it would take many years. A focus for Ukraine will also be the right to receive compensation from Russia.

When does environmental damage constitute a war crime?

The United Nations defines environmental damage as a war crime if it is disproportionate to the perpetrator’s military advantage and causes severe, widespread and long-term harm to the population.

Karim Khan, chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, announced in February that environmental crimes will be prosecuted and paid closer attention in the future. So far, no country or individual has been convicted of war crimes for environmental damage. Aaron Dumont said this is also due to the vague definition of such crimes in international law.

“You have to prove that 10 years from now, this bombing or this particular form of warfare still causes measurable environmental damage,” Dumont explained. He said this has been difficult to prove in the past. He cited the example of the Gulf War between Kuwait and Iraq, in which retreating Iraqi troops set fire to more than 700 oil fields in Kuwait, causing an ecological disaster across the region.

Anyone would have said this was a war crime against the environment, Dumont said. “But at that time, in the 90s, it was very difficult for geologists to prove that the consequences of these fires could be measured a decade later. It was simply methodologically impossible,” he said. But now, Dumont predicts, the prospects for success in bringing cases against Russia in some cases could be great, thanks to satellite imagery and evolving scientific methods.

The cases also include the bombing of the Novokayovka Dam. If a conviction is reached, “it would really be a major step forward and innovative moment for environmental law,” Dumont said. However, it is not clear what impact it would have. Russia is not a party to the Rome Statute, the ICC’s foundational treaty, and does not recognize the court’s decisions.

However, the expert clarified that “it is very important for those who are affected to recognize these crimes. This is the case, for example, with farmers or others who depend on nature for their survival in the region. They want their claims to be part of these proceedings.”

(cp/rml)