Global consequences of Russia's ecocide in Ukraine: Why Ukraine's victory will contribute to combating climate change

Russia’s aggression is causing massive environmental damage that will have a lasting impact on Ukraine. Weapon systems and mass burials are causing soil contamination in the breadbasket of Europe. Russia’s destruction of the Kakhovka hydroelectric power plant has devastated entire ecosystems in southern Ukraine, raised the risk of waterborne diseases, and destroyed irrigation systems and farmlands, thus threatening global food security. Russia has eroded the nuclear taboo and shellfire near the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant fuels fears of a nuclear catastrophe.

At the same time, the explosion of the Chornobyl nuclear power station – one of the biggest technonological catastrophes in history – was a catalyst for the beginning of the end of the Soviet Union, and cultural revolution in Ukraine.

How is Russian aggression affecting the global ecology? Can the levers of international law prevent a new ecological catastrophe? How does culture help us reflect on global changes?