On-the-ground report of the ignored breaking points in eastern Ukraine
As the fighting in the Donbas is entering its fifth year, the wider impact of hostilities has gained more traction from various media outlets. I traveled to the area with a Dutch journalist who lived in Ukraine and Poland, had reported on the conflict in the Donbas, and had a long-standing interest in the environmental consequences and related health impacts of the conflict. This theme receives hardly any media attention, apart from the occasional warning by national authorities, the UN Special Rapporteurs, or the OSCE. One major challenge for bringing this to the attention of the wider public is that people often associate the environment with soft security issues, and as long as people aren’t directly affected, attention to the issue wanes.
