Slowly, very slowly we walk away from two green Russian landmines. The one lies between the pine needles under a twig, the other a few meters away in a lot of sand. They are no larger than a hand.
Here, in the forests near the Northeastern Ukrainian city of Izjoem, there are thousands of such mines, says forester Oleksandr Karlov (42). That is why, in advance, he does not stop warning. “Look under your feet, look under your feet.” The safest way to return to the ready -to -go site with four -wheel drive is to step in Karlov’s footsteps. Then you know almost certain that you are not stepping on a mine. Karlov knows an explosion of such a mine, but you will probably never be able to walk again.
In addition to people, these so -called butterfly mines also pose a threat to nature. Because they explode, forest fires are created that destroy the ecosystem, the forester explains. And because there are so much, it is too dangerous to extinguish the fires deeper into the forest. “That forces us to see how the forest burns.”
Ribbons of branches
As with a jeep safari it is also on a bumpy sandy road. Karlov – who does not look like a typical forester with his blue bubble jacket and trendy glasses – drives through the forest, where red plates and white ribbons warn of branches of mines. The Ukrainians conquered the forests back from the Russians in September 2022.
Here you can clearly see that the war does not only bring death and destruction to the front line and in cities and villages. Due to fights, rocketing impacts and explosions, trees (partly) have been blackened in the forest in the forest. Some pieces of forest seem to be dead zones, full of fallen trees or with only bare branches. Nowhere is a sign of life – animals have died or fled. According to Karlov, 3,450 hectares of forest has gone up in flames here, an area slightly larger than the Waterleidingduinen near Amsterdam.
There are thousands of butterfly mines in the woods near the Northeastern Ukrainian city of Izjoem, says forest ranger Oleksandr Karlov (42).
Photos Kostyantyn Chernichkin
The forests were once artificially laid out, says Karlov. “This forest cannot survive without care. But because of all those mines we cannot carry out maintenance. The forest cannot recover. Everything will change here to sand, in dunes. ”
He stops at a place where Russian soldiers have biddled. Ammunitionists are scattered between the trees. Plastic water bottles and other packaging form garbage heaps. Don’t touch anything, Karlov recommends, don’t hide, it may be a deadly trap. Deep pits betrayed where Russian military vehicles have been. The soil, says Karlov, is heavily contaminated with hazardous substances.
He regards the destruction on the forests as ecocidedestroying ecosystems and biodiversity on a large scale. “The entire destruction of nature is the direct consequence of the war that Russia started against us. It is no coincidence they do. The Russians deliberately fires rockets on our forests. These actions lead to damage to our nature and to our entire ecosystem. ”
He also sees the destruction as an attack on the Ukrainian economy. The forest, he explains, is a natural resource for industry. Wood is used as a fuel, logging yields money.
Is the destruction of nature a Russian war crime? Karlov sighs. “The destruction of our air, our wealth, our beauty is a crime against our country, against the Ukrainian people.”
Environmental
The list of war damage to nature and the environment is long. Along the entire front line in Ukraine there are landscape fires, both of forests and agricultural land. Forest fires cause considerable greenhouse gas emissions. Rivers are polluted.
Due to the destruction of fossil fuel depots and refineries, tons of oil products in flames merge, according to an international report published last year by, among others, Dutch environmental expert Lennard de Klerk. That too has led to greenhouse gas emissions. The large -scale attacks on the Ukrainian electricity network cause leaks of sulfur hexafluoride, SF6the strongest greenhouse gas, is stated in the report.
At the climate summit in Baku in November last year, the Ukrainian minister Svitlana Hryntsjoek of environmental protection and natural resources reported that the Russian armed forces had previously committed 6,500 environmental crimes in Ukraine. She added that the war damaged three million hectares of forest. The territory of Ukraine that is contaminated with explosive objects measures 139,000 square kilometers, 3.7 times the surface of the Netherlands. Environmental damage as a result of war actions estimates Hryntsjoek at $ 71 billion (68 billion euros).
The Province of Kharkiv, which includes the forests near Izjoem, tells the story at regional level. As head of the Environmental Inspectorate, Viktoria Boetsjneva and her colleagues map out the destruction to nature. The total damage for air, water and land is around 479 billion Grivna (11 billion euros), she says in her office in Charkiv. Caused by, among other things, burning oil depots, forest fires and the destruction of the Oskil dam in 2022. “The authorities collect evidence whether the latter was deliberately done by the Russians.”
It is only part of the damage, she says. Whether she can do her work depends on the circumstances. Occupied areas in the region and places where there is fighting cannot visit Boetshneva and her colleagues. The total destruction on the forests is difficult to measure due to the presence of landmines. “To include evidence for ecocide in the forests, we must go on foot. That is not possible. ”
Looking for scrap
On the basis of research such as that of Boetsjneva, prosecutors are building a business against Russia, Olena Kryvoroetsjkina says in the modern business premises in Kyiv where ‘servant of the people’, the government party of President Zenskyy. On behalf of that party, she is deputy head of the Environmental Policy Committee and Nature Management in the Ukrainian parliament.
Ecocide falls under Ukrainian criminal law. But it is not on the list of recognized international war crimes at the International Criminal Court in The Hague – as genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes and the crime of aggression. However, it is punishable if, in attacks, there is serious damage to nature that is not in proportion to the military purpose.
For Kryvoroetsjkina (53) it is not important whether ecocide is given a place in international law. “Russia invaded our country to destroy everything that lives. The most important thing is that it is called to account internationally and that Moscow pays for the damage to our nature. It is up to Ukraine to collect evidence that we can present in an international court. ”
Andri and Vayl Biletsjenko Search in the woods for scrap to be able to sell.
Photos Kostyantyn Chernichkin
In the forests near Izjoem, forester Karlov walks through a part where trees are bare and have lost their peaks. A rocket piece pays in a tree trunk. Mortiers are scattered across the ground. The Ukrainians touched a Russian ammunition storage here, he tells around pieces of iron and metal. The planting is completely destroyed, he noticed.
Also the unemployed Andri Biletsjenko, dressed in smeared pants with holes, also strolls through the war. “Such a shame, how much forest did not catch fire here?” He says. “We picked mushrooms here in the fall. Nothing will grow anymore. Everything will first have to be cleaned up and the ground must be cleaned. ”
Biletsjenko (37) did not come to mourn over dead trees. With a black weekend bag around his shoulder, he is looking for scrap to sell to a factory. “Maybe they can make weapons out of it.”
