NATURAL RESOURCES OF UKRAINE: CONSEQUENCES AND RISKS OF RUSSIAN AGGRESSION

Abstract

The natural resources of Ukraine are suffering from russia forces. Ukraine is known as one of Europe’s largest grain producers. Ukraine is a major exporter of wheat (accounts for 10% of world exports), corn (15%), barley (15%), and sunflower (especially oil – 50%). The ongoing the Russian-Ukrainian war strengthens the unstable economic system in country. Military actions influence the environment of Ukraine in terms of climate change, soil and impact on agriculture, water security and supply. According to this, grain production in Ukraine decreased by 40%, and structure of crop losses due to war: wheat – 39%, sunflowers – 17%, corn – 12%, barley – 8%, fruits and berries – 3%, other crops – 21%. In addition, the Russian-Ukrainian war has impacted water availability and quality (risk for water resources), soil quality and degradation (risk for soil resources), forest health and productivity and habitat of species (risk for biological resources). For instance, the description of sewage treatment plants (the sewage treatment facilities were shelled in the city of Mykolaiv city, the sewage treatment facilities in the village of Novotroitske, Volnovasky district, Donetsk oblast were damaged etc. ), disruption of water supply to the crop production (damaged irrigation systems in Ukraine: 94% in the Kherson region, 74% in the Zaporizhia region, 30% in the Dnipropetrovsk region ), pollution of the surface and underground waters (massive flooding of military equipment and ammunition in reservoirs, leaks of oil products and other chemical compounds). In this article, we analyzed of the environmental situation under the impact of russian aggression on the state of natural resources of the country and justification of the consequences of this impact; identified the determination of the main risks for providing the country with food and the branches of the national economy with water supply, as well as the preservation of environmental components; proposed the development of proposals for the assessment of environmental damage to the environment as a result of the military aggression of the russian federation against Ukraine. We have identified the main risk: for food safety (the impact of military actions on soil resources – a risk of reduced food provision potential due to the loss of land productivity, since up to 30% of agricultural land is mined and according to the results of 2022, the crop yield losses has reached 17%); for environmental safety (the impact on military actions on water resources – damaged the dams and drainage systems, destruction of sewage treatment plants, seizure of hydroelectric power plants, and mining of coastline caused bacterial (oil products, lubricants) and organic (biogenic substances) pollution of water bodies and water shortages for the population (complete absence of water supply in temporarily occupied territories) and agriculture (irrigation networks were affected)); for protection of ecosystems (up to 20% of the reserve fund has already been affected, 600 species of fauna and 750 species of flora, including those listed in the Red Data Book, are threatened with extinction).