Six months into Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, efforts to assess the war’s environmental impact are still in their infancy. The relentless shelling of Ukrainian industrial sites has released poisonous substances, polluting the country’s soils and rivers and threatening its rich biodiversity. With most of Ukraine’s nature reserves located in conflict zones, activists warn that the extent of the damage is yet to be discovered.
Pictures of burned-out Russian tanks lying abandoned along Ukraine’s roads and tracks have become a familiar sight after six months of devastating war between the two neighbours. Less well known is the environmental cost of the more than 5,000 such military wrecks that Moscow’s forces have lost so far, according to a US intelligence tally.
