By Galina Korol | 2024-07-29

KYIV -- Russian occupiers are destroying the natural ecosystem of the Sea of Azov and the rivers of Donetsk province, according to the Mariupol city council in exile and local residents.

"These actions have caused a die-off of fish in the sea, and dead dolphins are washing up on shore," the Mariupol city council wrote on July 1 on its Telegram channel. "City residents have repeatedly noted sightings of dead sea mammals. But the occupiers are continuing to sit on their heels."

https://t.me/mariupolrada/22211

The sea is also being contaminated by sewage runoff from Mariupol's streets.

"There's just not enough air to breathe. No one [in power] cares one bit about this, and complaining doesn't help. This lake [of sewage] has been here for more than a month," furious residents said, according to a July 10 Telegram post by the Mariupol city council.

https://t.me/mariupolrada/22399

Invading Russian troops seized Mariupol in May 2022.

During the occupation, the environmental situation in the city has plummeted, said Petro Andriushchenko, an adviser to the lawful mayor of Mariupol.

"The number of people in the city has surged, and the burden on the sewer system has surged," he told Kontur, referring to an influx of Russians that the Kremlin encouraged to transform the ruined city's demographics. "But the sewers hadn't been working and aren't working."

"It's physics ... if something flows into a container, sooner or later it will start to flow over the edge," he said, adding that the Mariupol sewage runoff "is getting much worse."

Salinity rising

Because of Russian negligence, the region's main river has turned into a swamp, and accordingly, the amount of fresh water flowing into the Sea of Azov has fallen to a dangerously low level.

"The main river, whose flow was changed, is the Kalchik," Andriushchenko said. "Out of the three bridges on it, two were destroyed, right in Mariupol. Also, a hydraulic structure was put in the river a few years ago specifically to speed up the current and increase the amount of fresh water flowing into the Sea of Azov."

"[The Russians] demolished this hydraulic structure because they had no idea what it was and decided it was some sort of military equipment," he said. "That's why the flow started to slow down."

"Then when they started to ... repair the bridges, they dumped slag over the whole riverbed and laid a [far too narrow] pipeline that was about 30 to 50cm in diameter at the most."

With fresh water lacking, the sea's salinity is rising, and it is decimating all the flora, fauna and natural landscape of this reservoir.

"The goby [a prized local fish] is not the goby it once was," Andriushchenko said. "It's totally mutated, and now a different goby species has appeared."

Beluga sturgeons have vanished locally too, he said.

"Basically, the Sea of Azov as it was ... five years ago no longer exists, and I'm not even sure that it will ever exist again," Andriushchenko said.

Interconnected ecosystem

Mariupol's Azovstal metallurgical plant, where besieged Ukrainian forces held off Russians for 80 days, contains fine dust representing every harmful element in the periodic table, which could reach the Sea of Azov someday, according to the Mariupol city council.

Toxic waste "lying on open ground" can easily be blown to the Sea of Azov, from where "it goes into the Black Sea, and then the Mediterranean, because the whole ecosystem is interconnected," Andriushchenko said.

The biggest problem, analysts say, is that Russian occupiers are doing nothing to fix the consequences of their misdeeds.

At the same time, independent specialists are unable to do research on site or otherwise alleviate the situation.

"We can't investigate or document these crimes against Ukraine's environment in all the occupied territories, including the ones that are now adjacent to the Sea of Azov," Julia Markhel of Kyiv, director of Let's Do It Ukraine, told Kontur.

"We know for sure that in those territories all the treatment facilities that could have been there have been destroyed," she said.

"If toxins and pollutants end up in the Sea of Azov -- and they are ending up there -- they're definitely not treated [beforehand]," she added.

"Runoff from destroyed industrial facilities is always a catastrophe, and the destruction of tankers or vessels that transport fuel is always a catastrophe," Natalia Gozak, director of Greenpeace Ukraine, told Kontur.

"But the main problem is that in wartime we don't have complete information."

Kakhovka dam explosion

The Russians committed another environmental crime when they blew up the dam on the Kakhovka reservoir in June 2023, said Gozak.

"Satellites captured images that showed very clearly that in the first few days after the accident, even during the first few weeks, the organic matter of the entire northern Black Sea was severely contaminated," she said.

Satellite images showed an "algal bloom extending all the way to the Romanian coast."

Even after visible contamination goes away, the water and seabed still hold hazardous substances, she added.

Studies found "high concentrations of toxic metals -- zinc, cadmium, arsenic," said Markhel.

In June 2023, researchers discovered "dangerous levels of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and petroleum products" in the Black Sea, she noted, adding that such substances are linked to cancer and many other diseases.

That pollution makes swimming in the Black Sea or eating its fish inadvisable, said Markhel.

Some of the poisons introduced by Russia to the sea will "take 12 to 70 years to break down," she said, adding that those toxins "are not going anywhere," since the Black Sea is a closed system.

Carnage to marine life is resulting, she said. "In the past three years, scientists have confirmed that more than 50,000 dolphins have died in the Black Sea."

Markhel said her organization is collecting more evidence to present to the scientific community in hopes of future help in undoing Russia's environmental havoc.

At the same time, activists are handing over their data to the general prosecutor's office and Environmental Protection Ministry for a future prosecution of Russia.