Oleksii Vasyliuk

The Russian terrorist attack that caused the destruction of the Kakhovka Hydro Power Plant (HPP), has led to large-scale negative consequences for the environment. Together with our colleagues, we have already started conducting studies of safe areas at the site of the former reservoir. We have laid out test plots to monitor how the natural forest is being restored at the site of the reservoir. We were the first to publish an analytical review of the consequences of the disaster at the Kakhovka HPP and an analytical review of the prospects for wildlife restoration. Our comments appeared in more than 50 foreign publications and more than 200 publications and broadcasts in the Ukrainian mass media.

It is necessary to carry out a series of additional expeditions in order to prepare new analytical texts. It is also imperative to show the real situation to the leadership of Ukraine and inform the society through mass media. An analytical report on the consequences of the destruction of the Kakhovka reservoir for the environment will also be issued (in Ukrainian and English).

We document information about the damage done to wildlife during the war. To do this, we use open sources, interview colleagues who like me are also IDPs, as well as those who still remain in the occupied territories. Our work is positioned by the public organization of scientists called the "Ukrainian Environmental Group". There are other initiatives that track Russia's environmental crimes during the military invasion of Ukraine, but unfortunately they all focus only on how to calculate the damage in financial terms. But most of the facts of the destruction of nature can never be monetized and accurately calculated. Therefore, most researchers do not pay attention to most of the facts of real damage to the environment; however, that is precisely where out interest lies, namely, what negative changes the war brings to wildlife. In the future, we plan to publish a detailed report, similar to those we have prepared in the past on Crimea and Donbas. However, for now we are trying to draw as much attention as possible to the environmental component of the war. We publish the results of our research on the organization's website, as well as provide comments to Ukrainian and foreign media.