Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg visited Ukraine’s capital city Kyiv on Thursday to draw the world’s attention towards the ‘silent victim of war’ amid the nation’s 16-month long ongoing conflict with Russia. Thunberg meant to highlight the environmental damage being done in the war-raged nation, especially the June 6 collapse of the vast hydro-electric Kakhovka dam and its grave impact on its surroundings.
The dam blast, for which Russia-Ukraine blamed each other, massively flooded the southern Ukraine and Russian-occupied areas of the Kherson region and caused an estimated $1.5 billion in damages to the environment, Ukraine said.
Kyiv is investigating the blast as a war crime and possible criminal environmental destruction or “ecocide”. “I do not think that the world reaction to this ecocide was enough,” Thunberg was quoted as saying by news agency AFP, during her visit to Kyiv, where she attended the inaugural meeting of a new environmental group, of which she is also a part. “We have to talk louder about it, we have to raise awareness about what is going on,” she added.
The group also comprises senior European political figures and is tasked to assess the damage to Ukraine’s environment. It will also work to build mechanisms to hold Russia accountable, said Andriy Yermak, the head of the Ukrainian presidential staff. Yermak and former Swedish deputy prime minister Margot Wallstrom will be co-chair of the group.
Ukraine’s prosecutor general Andriy Kostin also highlighted how the environmental risks were turning into the “silent victim of war”. In a Twitter post meant to mark the event, he said that war has resulted in about 30% of Ukraine’s territory being contaminated with explosive objects and over 2.4 million hectares of forest damage.
