Examples of environmental harm in Ukraine | return to map
Name: Stirol Chemical Plant
Location: Horlivka, Donetsk Oblast
CEOBS database ID: 10700
Context
Stirol, founded in 1933 in Horlivka, Donetsk Oblast, was one of the oldest and largest manufacturers of nitrogen fertilisers in Ukraine: by 2014, it was producing 1% of all nitrogen-based fertilisers globally. It was a subsidiary of Ostchem Holding, but after the occupation of the eastern Donbas from 2014, the plant was left in an area claimed by the “Donetsk People’s Republic” and production ceased. It has been dormant ever since.
Timeline of key incidents
Since the start of the 2022 invasion, Stirol has been subject to sporadic damage from the fighting. The first recorded incident was on the 18th April 2022, when an electrical transformer and warehouses of unknown contents were hit. August 2022 saw increased targeting of the facility.
12th August 2022
At around 17:00 local time, footage was posted on Telegram of a large plume of black smoke rising from the area of the plant following shelling. Local groups reported that the burning building contained military equipment; pro-Russian media contested this claim, saying that the fire was due to burning roofing material and that there was no threat of chemical pollution from the incident.
Two weeks later, there were two strikes, two days apart, on the same 110 kilowatt electrical substation, with fires resulting from both incidents. Since December 2022, satellite imagery and social media posts have provided evidence of incidents of damage to the cooling unit of the ammonia production plant, the sulphur warehouse and the mechanical repair shop. Canteen buildings near to the ammonium nitrate and urea workshops, and administrative buildings near the plant entrance, were also damaged. The most recent incident was on the 24th August 2023.
Damage assessment
The area surrounding Stirol sits beyond the frontline and has been occupied for some time. Fighting has been less intense here than at other similar facilities in the “Donetsk People’s Republic”. Despite this, analysis of Synthetic Aperture Radar damage mapping shows that at least 8% of built structures at the site have been damaged.1
Environmental harm assessment
Prior to 2014, Stirol already had a significant history of environmental mismanagement: for example, the pumping of wastewater directly into tributaries of the River Don only ceased in October 2001 and discharges of highly toxic waste was suspected from its sludge pools. In 2013, there was an industrial accident at the facility in which ammonia gas was released. Five people were killed and 23 were hospitalised. If liquid or gaseous ammonia is still present at Stirol, an airborne release could constitute an environmental emergency.2 Other remaining chemicals and equipment could still pose considerable risks, as evidenced by the adjacent, inactive Gorlovka chemical plant.3
While the site’s mothballing will have reduced day-to-day emissions, conflict-linked damage is likely to have remobilised and dispersed existing pollutants and potentially led to new discharges. The damage caused to date may have complicated future remedial work at the site.
Longer-term implications
The plant’s future has been uncertain since 2014 and seems likely to remain so into the future. In January 2024, representatives of the “Donetsk People’s Republic” announced plans to restore the plant and to resume production of fertilisers exclusively, with no ammonia to be stored onsite.4 However, the reduction in the specialist workforce from 14,000 in 2013, to just 2,000 in 2017, would make the resumption of operations challenging.5 A proposed relaunch in 2018 had already failed and in 2021 it was reported that the site was being dismantled and sold for scrap. When considered alongside the plant’s chaotic management history in the last 20 years,6 it is likely that Stirol will remain an environmental liability.
Dis/mis-information watch
Since February 2022, the “Donetsk People’s Republic” has repeatedly sought to downplay the environmental health risks arising from damage to Stirol.
External resources
PJSC Concern Stirol: the largest producer of nitrogen mineral fertilizers in Ukraine | Ostchem
What happened to “Stirol” during the 8 years of the occupation of Gorlovka. The story of the decline of a chemical giant | Gorlovka.ua
Gorlovka Chemical Plant: Addressing a Piece of the Toxic Soviet Legacy | McCartor and May
Environmental assessment and recovery priorities for Eastern Ukraine | Zoï Environment Network
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- This was calculated by analysing the intersection between built structure polygons, obtained from a combination of OpenStreetMap and Microsoft Buildings, and damage mapping produced by Jamon Van Den Hoek (Oregon State University) and Corey Scher (City University of New York), derived from Sentinel-1 data. Visual inspection of very high resolution satellite imagery shows that this method underestimates damage.
- Ivan Prikhodko, the local “Donetsk People’s Republic” official, claimed that in 2014 all the ammonia stored at the plant was transported to Odesa to stop this occurring. Ukrainian media confirmed in 2015 that the 15 km section from Stirol to pumping station no. 14 had been shut down; in 2018, the Ukrainian state operator of the pipeline, Ukrkhimtransammiak, confirmed that the entire section of pipeline to Stirol had been emptied. No ammonia releases have been reported at Stirol since the start of the 2022 invasion, though ground-based sensors to monitor atmospheric ammonia concentrations are now absent from this area of the Donbas.
- Prior to its closure in 2001, Gorlovka produced several toxic compounds including mononitrochlorobenzene (MNCB) and trinitrotoluene (TNT), and fumes emitted by these decaying industrial remnants posed an environmental health hazard to the city’s residents. To prevent further spread of these environmental pollutants, the Gorlovka plant was subject to a remediation programme in 2013 to clean up the remaining toxic barrels of MNCB and TNT.
- A factor in this decision was the June 2023 attack on the Togliatti-Gorlovka-Odesa ammonia pipeline, which, prior to 2014, transported up to 2,900 tonnes of ammonia per day to the ammonia processing facility at Yuzhne port near Odesa. The attack highlighted the environmental threats posed by the release of ammonia gas.
- Along with the general trend of migration from and displacement of Ukrainians in Donbas since 2014, Stirol workers were apparently specifically recruited to work at a similar, new chemical plant in the Republic of Tatarstan in Russia.
- In 2010, the plant was sold to Dmitry Firtash’s Ostchem Group, though the previous owner, Nikolai Yankovsky, had sought a buyer since 2005. After the “Donetsk People’s Republic” gained control in Horlivka, they assumed control of managing the plant, which in effect seems to have meant selling off its assets.
