Ecocide as a Weapon of War in Ukraine

The full-scale war in Ukraine, ongoing since February 2022, has attracted the attention of the international community primarily as an armed conflict with broad geopolitical implications. However, from the very beginning of Russia’s invasion, numerous reports have emerged describing extensive destruction of the natural environment.

These acts of environmental devastation are increasingly referred to as “ecocide” – a term denoting the deliberate destruction of life on Earth.

The aim of this analysis is to demonstrate that “ecocide,” understood as a crime against the environment, has become in Ukraine one of the tactics of warfare, alongside conventional military operations, hybrid activities, and cyberattacks. There are now growing calls to recognize “ecocide” as another crime falling under the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court (ICC). This analysis will examine the facts concerning the destruction of Ukrainian infrastructure and the natural environment, review other examples of wars in which the environment was deliberately targeted (including Vietnam), and finally outline the legal context, including the debate over expanding the ICC’s mandate to prosecute ecocide.

Russian Crimes Against the Environment in Ukraine

Since 24 February 2022, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has taken various forms: from a conventional armed conflict, through hybrid operations, to cyberattacks. However, the scale and magnitude of environmental destruction have drawn particular attention. The President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, has repeatedly emphasized that alongside the suffering of the civilian population, the country is also facing the consequences of what he has described as a “war against nature.”

The most symptomatic example of such actions was the destruction of the Kakhovka Dam on 6 June 2023 – an event that experts from the United Nations described as “a catastrophe that extends beyond the borders of Ukraine.” The breach of the dam alone caused devastating floods across an area of more than 620 km². Thousands of people were forced to evacuate, at least 40 lost their lives, and more than 4,400 homes were destroyed. The disaster also severely affected fisheries and the fishing industry (with losses exceeding 11,000 tonnes of fish), devastated approximately 11,300 hectares of forests, temporarily deprived around one million people of access to drinking water, and released hazardous chemical substances into the regional ecosystem, which experts warn will have long-term consequences.

Moreover, Russia blocked UN rescue operations and prevented international assistance from reaching the occupied territories. According to President Zelenskyy, the destruction of the dam was a deliberate attempt to inflict the greatest possible environmental, economic, and humanitarian losses, rendering the region uninhabitable and forcing Ukrainian authorities to divert resources away from defense efforts toward mitigating the effects of the catastrophe.

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