Examples of environmental harm in Ukraine | return to map
Name: Golden Agro grain elevator complex
Location: Rubizhne, Luhansk Oblast
CEOBS database ID: 10496
Timeline of key incidents
The Golden Agro facility was one of a number of sites to be substantially damaged or destroyed during the battle of Rubizhne, which lasted from the 15th of March to the 12th of May 2022. Many residents remained in the city due to the difficulty evacuating; the post-occupation population is unclear.
9th April 2022
Large explosions generated two high-altitude and reddish-brown plumes, characteristic of nitrogen oxides. The explosions were most likely of nitric acid stored in tanks at the site and were captured on footage from drones, military positions and civilian tower blocks more than 10 km away in Lysychansk.
Damage assessment
The destruction of the facility was near-total, with a 25 m wide crater left at the focus of the explosion. The grain storage facilities, laboratories, tanks and railway infrastructure were all impacted. The owner of Golden Agro estimated financial losses of $20 million.
The neighbouring waste processing site was also destroyed, although it has not been possible to determine the exact nature of the site. There may have been an even wider blast radius because many adjacent buildings were also destroyed, although this may have been the result of the fighting itself.
Environmental harm assessment
There was an immediate threat from the plume of nitrogen oxides – which are highly toxic if inhaled – and the plume presented a significant public health emergency for the remaining citizens.1 This was the second such incident in four days; another similar explosion occurred in railway tanks less than a kilometre away and numerous similar explosions have affected nitrate fertiliser storage sites along the frontlines.2
A secondary environmental risk comes from the abandoned grain: left out in the open it has continuously fermented, igniting fires that have lasted for months. These fires are visible in press footage from May 2022 and June 2022. This smouldering is occasionally visible in short-wave infra-red satellite imagery – for example on the 14th November 2022. Chronic exposure to the smoke from the grain burning over a number of months may have led to health impacts. Extinguishing these burns is difficult even in peacetime.
Longer-term implications
Footage from June 2023 and February 2024 shows that most debris remains in-situ and that there is a significant volume of waste to treat. This echoes the situation at many sites around Rubizhne, where there appears to have been little work undertaken to address the destruction caused by the fighting. A long-term plan was released by the occupying authorities, although it only deals with a small proportion of the damaged facilities. Information available online provides very little detail and does not mention any environmental recovery or restoration, including to the Golden Agro facility.
Dis/mis-information watch
Following the occupation of Rubizhne, Golden Agro was frequently mentioned in Russian media pieces and a narrative emerged that Ukrainian shelling from Lysychansk caused the blast. However, at the time, the area around the facility was under the control of Ukrainian troops – some of whom are on record describing their experiences of the nitric acid explosions.
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- Especially given the difficulties for an emergency response – a comparable incident occurred in Catalonia in 2015, triggering an emergency response and detailed post-disaster assessment.
- There were numerous examples of explosions at nitrate fertiliser storage sites during the first 12 months of the full scale invasion, from the local farm level, e.g. Mykolaiv, Kharkiv and Kherson oblasts, to larger facilities or in transit, e.g. Rubizhne, and through to the land terminus, e.g. the massive explosion at Olvia seaport in Mykolaiv.