How the Russian invasion is impacting the Ukrainian landscape

WAMU 88.5 | By Chris Remington

Published April 25, 2022 at 9:01 AM EDT

A local resident rides next to a destroyed residential building in Irpin, northwest of Kyiv amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

While Ukraine’s humanitarian crisis continues to unfold – another crisis is looming around it – the destruction of Ukraine’s environment.

Olexiy Maruschak is with the Ukrainian Nature Conservation Group – he’s been living in a suburb about 20 miles outside of Kyiv since the war began.

Maruhshack and his team stayed in Ukraineduringthe fighting – tracking the impact of the war on the country’s wildlife and natural environment.

“We also gather the evidences of the war crimes against nature,” he told 1A Producer Chris Remington in an interview. “We try to collect, photos, videos from people who saw these war crimes. It will be interesting in 2, 3 or 5 years how it effects nature.”

What impact do wars have on the landscapes they’re fought on? How are they contributing to global climate change – and ecological degradation?