The transformation of Ukraine from industrialized to industrialized: The Emerald Network of protected conserver zones and the future of groundwater-based ecosystems in Ukraine

Since the fall of the Soviet Union, a heavily industrialized Ukraine has made headway in protecting its natural resources. The Emerald Network of protected conserver zones consists of over 270 sites, which contributes 10 percent of the country, and tree-felled restrictions help preserve the unique plants and animals that call those areas home. Even in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone, still laced with radiation from the 1986 nuclear disaster, populations of bears and wolves have returned and flourished. Despite it being industrial, and many of its cities being polluted,Ukraine had been getting greener before the invasion of Russia.

Blown-up tanks and other vehicles leak oil and diesel. Fires aerosolize pollutants, propelling chemicals and particulate matter into the atmosphere, which then falls as a kind of toxic snow. In Ukraine, more than one million acres have burned in forest fires so far.

The contamination of groundwater is uniquely insidious. According to Nickola Denisov, deputy director of the Zo Environment Network, if chemicals migrate underground, they will stay there for a long time. Denisov says it’s a much more stable environment. It’s polluted when it’s polluted. And it may take a very, very long time—many years—for groundwater to get rid of pollution.”

The struggle against the Russian occupation in Kherson, Ukraine, as seen by CNN and CNN: Explosive bombs, food shortages, and underground food shortages

“There is practically no water supply in the town. The lack of electricity has led to a shortage of medicines and bread. There are also problems with food supplies,” Roman Golovnya, adviser to the mayor of Kherson, said in a TV broadcast Saturday.

But life remains far from normal, with authorities warning residents to be wary of explosives littering the city, and Russian forces still nearby – just across the strategically important Dnipro River.

This is not the end of the struggle against the Russian occupation in the country, reports CNN’s Nic Robertson, who witnessed emotional scenes Saturday in Kherson’s central square as residents hailed their liberation.

“You can see that the Ukrainians have moved to that river bank, they are now controlling that area, they will have to mop up some remaining Russian forces that did not make it out of the west bank of the Dnipro River. But those that are there will probably either surrender or in essence be eliminated from the fight.”

The main threat at the moment is mass mining, according to the National Police, with a police representative injured while demining the administrative buildings of the city.

The Ukrainian President warned during his nightly address Saturday that almost 2,000 “explosive” items had already been removed from the Kherson region. He asked Kherson residents to be careful and not try to check the buildings on their own.

“There are 10 groups of bomb disposal experts working in Kherson, the police are working, and there are various units of the defense forces,” Zelensky said.

Infrastructure has taken an unwelcome hit: Zelensky said that “before fleeing from Kherson, the occupiers destroyed all critical infrastructure – communication, water supply, heat, electricity.”

The CNN team reported that the weather in Kherson city is getting tougher with sub-zero temperatures at night. The Ukrainian authorities say that those who can’t live in Kherson can go to other parts of the country.

Source: https://www.cnn.com/2022/11/13/europe/ukraine-kherson-food-shortages-mines-intl/index.html

Operational update of the Ukrainian military in Kherson on Sunday night: “Leave no stone unturned” over the Dnipro River

CNN obtained satellite images from Maxar Technologies that showed water flowing out of the three sluice gates at the dam.

A Russian-installed official in the Kakhovka hydroelectric power plant has claimed that the facility has been damaged by shelling and will need at least a year to repair it.

Pro-Russian officials in the annexed Kherson region claim that the evacuation of civilians and the retreat of Russian troops from the west bank to the east bank of Dnipro River is due to the threat of flooding that could occur if the Ukrainian military hits the Kakhovka hydroelectric power plant dam.

According to a CNN military analyst, the next steps for the Ukrainian military in Kherson will be a major urban operation. A methodical operation to clear buildings of potential booby traps and mines is what you will see.

The Ukrainians will have to move their systems forward in order to defend against any Russian missiles that are on the eastern bank of the Dnipro River.

Russian troops are focusing their efforts in the Kherson region on equipping their defensive lines on the eastern bank of the Dnipro River, an operational update from the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) General Staff said Sunday night.

Their withdrawal east across the Dnipro cedes large swathes of land that Russia has occupied since the early days of the war, and that Putin had formally declared as Russian territory just five weeks ago.

The retreat represents a major blow for Putin’s war effort in Ukraine. Kherson was the only Ukrainian regional capital that Russian forces had captured since February’s invasion.

The military said that the Russians had still been conducting assaults in the eastern parts of the country. Other areas like Kupyansk and Lyman are also getting hit by artillery, the AFU added.

Luba’s death and others like hers do not feel like tragedies. Russian soldiers have deliberately left behind booby traps, landmines, and unexploded ordnance while retreating in Ukraine, not to protect themselves, but to spitefully take away the freedom of civilians. Mark Hiznay, an associate director of the arms division at Human Rights Watch, says mines only work when they are monitored by those who set them. If an enemy triggers a mine without being subjected to arms or artillery fire, they can retreat, reassess, and perhaps even clear the minefield. Leaving things behind has less strategic value than leaving them unattended. Hiznay says the population will be punished.

Luba was 66 years old, when she and her husband were looking for mushrooms. The explosion shredded her calves and feet, and cut a long gash across her stomach. When paramedics arrived, they had no safe way to quickly reach her without potentially triggering another device. Luba died on the way to hospital.

Investigating the case of Luba and a man killed by petal mines in Izium, Ukraine after the September 2022 conflict

Tuesday’s report says that Ukraine has destroyed 3.4 million antipersonnel mines it once had in its arsenal, but, in documents submitted to the United Nations, the country said it still has 3.3 million stockpiled.

The device that killed Luba was made of duct tape and tripwires, and was placed by hand. Again, these traps have no strategic value, serving only to terrorize the civilian population—to punctuate every day-to-day decision with fear and doubt ahead of the country being slowly demined. “In places that were liberated in the springtime, like Bucha, you see that essential [mindset of]: ‘Let’s kill civilians with booby traps,’” Hiznay says. “It’s salting the earth; it’s targeting people.”

Ukrainians will return to these contaminated places before they are safe despite the risk. Ruth Bottomley has worked in areas contaminated by mines in Cambodia for 20 years and she says that people have an attachment to where they come from. People want to get back to what they are accustomed to, even if there is still a threat.

In a statement to Human Rights Watch, Ukraine’s deputy defense minister, Oleksandr Reznichenko, said Ukraine is adhering to international humanitarian law, but that Ukrainian authorities cannot comment on specific weapons “before the end of the war and restoration of our sovereignty and territorial integrity.”

After Ukrainian forces liberated the eastern city of Izium in September of 2022, Human Rights Watch conducted interviews with witnesses and emergency workers. A man died after he was injured by a petal mine over the course of five months.

The report suggests the mines were intended to be targets. If the positions were in firing range, the mines could have been delivered on several occasions.

The petals are usually green or brown. They are small and can be shot down from a distance. They are able to explode at the moment of their impact. They are made of the same material as the toys that are used in North America.

Operation of the HALO Trust to clear explosive field in Ukraine during the First Battle of the Crimean War: Oleksandr Havriluk’s farm

In the past, Ukraine and some of its allies have suggested backing out of the Mine Ban Treaty, citing the weapons as an important tool to keep Russian forces at bay.

The Ukrainian troops are maintaining their commitment to international law under the circumstances of this brutal war.

The first time Oleksandr Havriluk returned to his farm after it had been stormed and occupied by Russian troops, tears rolled down his face when he saw what they had left behind.

Last year’s wheat harvest had been destroyed, millions of dollars worth of machinery had been left in ruins, and his farm buildings were almost completely destroyed.

So far, Havriluk says he has removed around 20 mines from his fields in Valika Komyshuvaha, close to the city Izium, using only a metal detector he purchased himself.

It’s a stark choice for farmers across Ukraine, to clear the fields of explosives to prepare for planting season, or contemplate another year without income.

The Russian invasion has slowed the shipments of grain from Ukranian and contributed to soaring prices of staple products such as bread and cereals, even with a UN brokered deal that allowed Ukrainian ships to pass through the Black Sea.

In recent months, several farm workers have been hurt or killed working in their fields, including a 65-year-old man who died instantly when he stepped on explosives near the village of Chervone in southern Ukraine, according to local officials.

The HALO Trust, the world’s largest mine clearance organization, currently employs 700 staff in Ukraine, a number they’re planning to nearly double by the end of the year.

“The scale of contamination is huge, and it’s spread across the country,” Mairi Cunningham, who runs the HALO Trust demining task force in Ukraine, told CNN.

Cunningham said the biggest challenge was the lack of pattern, with different types and densities of weapons spread all over the vast geographical area of Ukraine.

“We’re seeing anti-vehicle mines, both metal and plastic. We’re seeing anti-personnel mines,” Cunningham said. We are also seeing anti-personnel binding and other mines on tripwires.

The challenge of lifting anti-tanks in a war-fighting operation, and how to protect ourselves from the enemy at high altitudes

He said there was no “one-size fits all” approach to the demining effort, which required “bespoke methods,” so it was about “being able to train staff appropriately.”

And with an active conflict still raging, the operations can only take place away from the front lines of the war, to protect the safety of the sappers and other staff.

Cunningham said lifting anti-tank mines was extremely dangerous. Anti-lift devices are designed to kill and injured people who try to do that.