“Russia’s war against Ukraine not only causes enormous human suffering, but also has brutal environmental consequences. The flooding after the blasting of the Kakhovka Hydroelectric Power Plant is the worst example so far,” Rinata Kazak, Björn-Ola Linnér and Henrik Carlsen from Mistra Geopolitics, write in the Swedish newspaper DN Debatt.
“Ecocide – a large-scale, deliberate environmental destruction – must be recognised as a violation of international law,” Rinata Kazak, Professor Björn-Ola Linnér and Henrik Carlsen from Linköping University, SEI and Mistra Geopolitics write in DN Debatt.
Ukraine’s Ministry of Environmental Protection and Natural Resources publishes weekly overviews of the environmental damage caused by the war. The ministry claims it has evidence of more than 2 000 environmental offences, with damages estimated to over €50 billion so far. In March, the World Bank estimated the total cost of rebuilding Ukraine at $411 billion, equivalent to 2.6 times the country’s GDP in 2022.
According to Professor Björn-Ola Linnér, Programme Director of Mistra Geopolitics at Linköping University; Henrik Carlsen, Deputy Programme Director of Mistra Geopolitics at SEI; and Rinata Kazak, Visiting Researcher at Linköping University for Mistra Geopolitics, the Swedish government should:
- Push for the inclusion of ecocide as a crime against humanity in international law.
- Coordinate actions to support post-war green transformation across Ukraine.
- Initiate a donor conference for the environmental restoration of post-war Ukraine.
Swedish green diplomacy should also play a leading role in supporting Ukraine so that reconstruction becomes an opportunity for sustainable social transformation and environmentally conscious peacemaking.
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This new text is a summary of the original op-ed published by Dagens Nyheter, summarized by Ylva Rylander, Press contact for Mistra Geopolitics at SEI.