Forest fires push up greenhouse gas emissions from war in Ukraine

A burnt forest in Kharkiv last October. There was a notable jump in landscape fires in 2024. Photograph: Nikoletta Stoyanova/The Guardian

The burning of Ukraine’s forests at unprecedented rates over the past year has helped push the total greenhouse emissions from the war since Russia’s full-scale invasion to almost 230m tonnes, analysis shows.

The study, published on the third anniversary of the invasion, found the fighting and its consequences had led to 55m tonnes of emissions in the past 12 months.