Kakhovka Dam destruction branded “ecocide” - Ukraine calls for assistance to assess damage
The breach of the Kakhovka dam in southern Ukraine has displaced the Dnipro River, killed an unknown number of people and animals, and left many Ukrainians homeless. The immediate human consequences of the dam’s destruction have already been devastating and its ecological impacts, though still being assessed, have been repeatedly referred to as “ecocide”¹.
Sewage has spilled into the streets lining the Dnipro, the banks of which have washed away rich topsoil from farmland in the region. Upstream, the sudden drainage of the reservoir could rapidly change the ecosystem in a process of desertification. Downstream, alongside the damage to settlements and agriculture, the floodwaters risk dumping large volumes of agrotoxins and petrochemicals in the Black Sea which experts warn could result in mass mortality of fish, molluscs and other aquatic species².
There is also the long-term danger posed to Europe’s biggest nuclear plant, Zaporizhzhia. The International Atomic Energy Agency said there was “no immediate nuclear safety risk at plant”³, as the cooling pools are already full. However, this could change if the reservoir behind the dam is significantly depleted, which would make it difficult to replenish the cooling system and operate the diesel generators.
Both Ukraine and Russia are among the small number of countries with an offence of ecocide listed in their penal codes, and from damage assessed so far it appears that the Kakhovka situation could fit both of these, and could also be potentially addressed by using international humanitarian law in Ukrainian courts or through the Rome Statute in the ICC, although the existing Rome Statute clause on environmental harm in wartime has a high bar for the crime to be made out.
Ukraine is already beginning to investigate and prepare a war crime and ecocide prosecution based on its own criminal code, and is calling urgently on the international community to assist with expertise, technology and on-the-ground assistance to properly identify and catalogue the full extent of damage suffered - damage which threatens ecosystems well beyond Ukraine’s borders and is likely to outlast the conflict situation by many years.
Ukraine’s Prosecutor General Andriy Kostin, said: “This is probably the biggest environmental disaster in the history of independent Ukraine. We are committed to investigating this war crime and ecocide to our fullest capacity. But we are also aware that a crime of this scale requires an independent international investigation. That is why we are fully open to cooperation with the International Criminal Court. The ICC representatives have already visited the flooded areas. We are providing them with access to all evidence and sites under Ukrainian control. It's important for us that they see everything with their own eyes and draw their own objective conclusions. We are also urging our international partners, on the level of governments as well as non-governmental organizations, to provide technical and expert assistance in the assessment of environmental damage. We need a truly global effort to investigate this crime and overcome its dire consequences.”
Jojo Mehta, Co-founder and Executive Director of Stop Ecocide International said:
“The destruction of the Kakhovka dam in Ukraine is devastating. Ukraine will certainly want to prosecute under existing (if limited) provisions, which can be found both in its own domestic laws and in various parts of the Rome Statute, including the dedicated war crimes clause on environmental harm.
It is notable, however, that environmental damage in wartime is largely perceived as “incidental” by aggressors, historically and still today. It is essential therefore to recognise ecocide as a crime in its own right, applying in both peacetime and conflict, as a more effective deterrent to severe and either widespread or long-term environmental harm.
Ukraine has strongly supported this direction of travel, pushing in the Council of Europe for recommendation to all 46 member states to legislate for ecocide and support establishment of a standalone international crime.
We can simply no longer sidestep how profoundly dangerous it is in any context to destroy the ecosystems upon which we entirely depend for lives and livelihoods, for sustaining crucial and threatened biodiversity, and for regulating climate on our shared planet.”
1. President Zelenskyy’s first public address on the Kakhovka dam breach: https://twitter.com/ZelenskyyUa/status/1666186079907598337