Ukraine used Cop27 to prove that Russia’s invasion is causing an Environmental disaster

Heavy shelling and the movement of troops and tanks has polluted the air, water and land, said Svitlana Grynchuk, Ukraine’s assistant environment minister, as well as killing thousands of people and decimating the country’s economy. A fifth of Ukraine’s protected areas have been ruined by the war, she added, with the contamination of previously fertile soils alone costing €11.4bn (£10bn) in damages.

“This is not simply a war, this is state terrorism and it is ecocide,” Grynchuk said. “The invasion has killed wildlife, generated pollution and caused social instability. The terrorist state continues to send missiles to our power plants. Our environment is under threat because of this terrorist attack.”

War causes emissions, as does its aftermath. Ukraine estimates that rebuilding its shattered towns, cities and industry will cause nearly 50m tonnes of carbon dioxide to be emitted. “Military emissions in peacetime and times of war are relevant, they are material,” said Axel Michaelowa, a climate economist who has studied wartime pollution. “The emissions are comparable to that of entire countries.”

The Ukrainian government’s priority remains rallying international support to help expel Russia from its territory. In a video address to Cop27 delegates and world leaders on Tuesday, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said that “there can be no effective climate policy without the peace”.

But Ukraine is also touting its enthusiasm to transition swiftly to renewable energy, which it said would cast off the yoke of Russian fossil fuel dominance through which Vladimir Putin has used gas as a pressure point against European allies of Ukraine. This stance has been backed at Cop27 by John Kerry, the US climate envoy, who said American and European leaders were “absolutely certain this accelerates the transition” to clean energy.