environmental damage
Greta Thunberg denounces “ecocide” in Ukraine as a “form of warfare”.
In Ukraine, environmental activist Greta Thunberg also meets President Zelenskyy
© Sergei Supinsky / AFP
Greta Thunberg is now traveling to war-torn Ukraine. The climate activist is part of a delegation investigating environmental damage caused by the war.
The Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg has the through the Russian war of aggression in the environmental damage caused by Ukraine. “Ecocide” and “environmental destruction” are “a form of warfare,” said the Swede on Thursday during a visit to Kiev as part of a delegation investigating the effects of the war on the environment in Ukraine. The delegation also met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
The environment and thus people’s livelihoods and homes are “deliberately” targeted, the 20-year-old said at a press conference where she appeared with Ukrainian presidential adviser Andriy Yermak. Thunberg also criticized the lack of international interest. “I don’t think the world’s response to this environmental degradation is sufficient,” Thunberg said.
Massive environmental damage in Ukraine due to dam disaster
After the destruction of the Kakhovka dam in southern Ukraine, the Ukrainian government estimates the damage to the environment at almost 1.4 billion euros. These “preliminary estimates” did not include “losses to agriculture, infrastructure, shelter, and the cost of rebuilding the power plant itself,” Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal told an international reconstruction conference in London last week.
The dam on the Dnipro River in Russian-occupied territory was destroyed on June 6. Huge amounts of water escaped and flooded large areas. Kiev and Moscow accuse each other of being responsible for the collapse of the dam.
Kakhovka Dam
Destruction on the Dnipro: “Cities, infrastructure, entire industries must be rebuilt”
According to the Ukrainian authorities, the destruction of the dam also poses a threat to the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant, Europe’s largest nuclear power plant on the Dnipro. According to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the “already precarious” security situation there has worsened.
The reactors of the power plant occupied by Russia have been shut down for months. However, the fuel in the reactor cores and in the storage pools must still be constantly cooled to prevent core meltdown and the release of radioactivity into the environment. For this purpose, the water of the reservoir is used, the level of which dropped after the dam burst.