The assessment encompasses damage caused both upstream and downstream, including hydrological and geomorphic impacts, chemical contamination, waste, and ecological damage, including to protected areas.
939 millions tons of industrial waste are stored in tailings facilities in Donetsk and Luhansk Oblasts, the conflict is increasing the risk of a serious environmental emergency through direct damage, and by mines and heavy fighting obstructing access for assessments and repairs.
To mark five years of conflict the OSCE Project Coordinator for Ukraine has published a series of infographics detailing the environmental consequences of the conflict in Ukraine’s Donbas region.
The challenges for the water system eastern Ukraine are significant and remain largely unchanged since they were first assessed by UNICEF in 2017.
A report assessing how the conflict in eastern Ukraine has impacted the quality of surface and groundwaters in the Siverskyi Donets basin, which is intersected by the Ukraine conflict’s frontline.
This report provides an overview of OSCE SMM-facilitation and monitoring of infrastructure repair and maintenance in eastern Ukraine (January 2017 – August 2018).
Conflicts like the ones in the Ukraine, Iraq, and Syria show how wartime damage to the environment can have long-term consequences for countries as they seek to recover.
A recurring theme in the conversations is that the problem with the environment was that once it would go wrong, it would go wrong in a very destructive way.
