Russia's invasion of Ukraine has provoked an environmental disaster across the country's vast territory that will escalate for years to come. Missile attacks by Russian forces on critical infrastructure and hazardous sites have significantly exacerbated the country's air, land, and water pollution, threatening biodiversity across the European region. Since hostilities extend over almost the entire territory of Ukraine, the environmental impact of the war indirectly affects and spreads to all layers of the geosphere of neighbouring countries.
For this reason, understanding the scale of the military impact on Ukraine's environment is critical. Because environmental impacts are also human impacts but in a different way.
At this point, the pro bono consulting project KYIV RYSING enters the scene to provide its readers with a clear understanding of Ukraine’s present-day potential and perspectives going forward addressing the Environmental domain as one of the essentials alongside Military, Social, and Economic ones. This pro bono factbook released internationally on the 14th of October 2022, reflects and describes key issues that affect far beyond Ukraine and represent active investment interest for foreign donors and investors.
Kyiv Strategy Consulting LLC is the author and initiator of this most comprehensive investigation about Ukraine and for the sake of Ukraine. The Company is one of the largest Kyiv-based management consultancies with a team of 130 experts providing professional consulting services worldwide, supervised and guided by its leader and CEO Nicolai Kiskalt. Mr. Kiskalt together with his investors established the company in 2018 with a strong belief in Ukraine’s potential that not just remains unchanged but grows daily despite all the turbulences the county is facing over the last 8 months since Russia started the full-scale war against Ukraine.
Today is no exaggeration to say that environmental consequences are enormous, not to mention nuclear terrorism by the Russian occupiers at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, which now poses a serious threat to global nuclear security.
“When we talk about the environmental impacts of Russia’s aggression, nuclear risks are definitely the largest in terms of possible scope and impact. It is totally mind-blowing to imagine that while we are experiencing this new form of terrorism in Ukraine and no one in the world knows how exactly to react, nuclear energy still seems to be perceived as safe globally” – says NATALIA GOZAK, Executive Director, Eco action as part of her contribution to KYIV RYSING.
Before Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, the country focused on transitioning to sustainable development to improve environmental protection. As a country with a highly industrialised economy and a large agricultural sector, Ukraine faces long-term environmental challenges including industrial pollution, depletion of natural resources, degradation of natural ecosystems, low energy efficiency, and poor waste management. It has led to increased air pollution, land degradation, biodiversity loss, climate change, and human health problems related to environmental risk factors.
The EU-Ukraine Association Agreement has enabled the country to formulate an environmental policy and implement various measures in the areas of climate change and environmental security.
In 2021, Ukraine was ranked 52nd on the Environmental Performance Index (EPI). This is a global ranking of 180 countries that provides a data-backed summary of their sustainability status in terms of their performance on climate change, environmental health, and ecosystem vitality for 11 countries. However, Ukraine's relatively low performance on certain indicators, such as air quality, water and sanitation, and ecosystem health, points to the need for further environmental improvements.
What we see now is that every day, Ukraine not only fights for getting its territories back under control but also shows the world its clear determination to transition to the path of sustainable development. State authorities shall stay committed to policies based on the principles of sustainability.
To restore the environment in Ukraine and at least return to the pre-war state level, enormous resources are needed to ensure possible development for the future. It is high time for us, both average citizens and businesses to become responsible. We must unite to explore vast opportunities for society in a vector of sustainable development. To achieve this target, it is important to balance the three core elements of economic growth, social inclusion, and environmental protection. These factors are interrelated, and all are important for every individual and the well-being of society.
The main goal is to enable a regional sustainable business ecosystem that works for economic recovery and development, based on sustainability principles for the transition to a green economy and sustainable civil society.
As mentioned by DR. BOHDAN VYKHOR, CEO, of WWF Ukraine: “Ukraine must develop a national Biodiversity strategy and implement it to achieve the protection of 30% of Ukrainian territory through the Emerald network law implementation on our way to EU environmental legislation approximation. Such an approach will engage the public in management planning and allocate funding to proper natural resources management and restorations for the benefit of local communities and each Ukrainian”.
Kyiv Strategy Consulting LLC is ready to act as a true Ukrainian thought leader and direct businesses to the right place on the path to sustainable development and give the fullest support to retranslate the legal requirements into a common understandable language for both the EU and Ukraine. The team of professional experts from Kyiv Consulting together in collaboration with an Ukrainian Law Firm is willing to share their expertise as well as explain and convey the importance of standardization and implementation of globally known and widely used approaches in terms of sustainable growth, ecological awareness, corporate citizenship, waste management standards & policies.
Take time to learn more on the pages of KYIV RYSING and invest in whatever you can for the sustainable future of Ukraine.
For reference: the chapter of the book dedicated to the Environment discloses key aspects of the environmental sphere that have suffered the most from the Russian full-scale war in Ukraine, including Environmental safety, Biological diversity, and Nuclear security.
