Stood within the chilly air of a southern Ukrainian village, dozens of investigators have been digging into the bottom, accumulating grime, taking pictures and planting small purple flags within the soil.
Watching over the proceedings was Vladislav Ignatenko, a Ukrainian prosecutor conducting a world-first battle crimes investigation into allegations of Russian ecocide.
The case, which Kyiv plans to take to the International Criminal Court (ICC) in some type, is the most recent in a string of investigations and challenges that Ukraine hopes will maintain Russia accountable – and make it pay – for its invasion.
The investigation within the southern Kherson area stems from the intensive flooding brought about after the Kakhovka dam was partially destroyed on June 6 in a sequence of early morning blasts.
Dozens have been killed as complete villages turned submerged and the United Nations says there was $14 billion of destruction.
Ukraine says Russia blew up the dam and that the extent of the environmental harm constitutes a battle crime.
To construct its case, it has dispatched a hundreds-strong group of ecological investigators.
“We’re going to use every possible method to gather evidence,” Ignatenko, 32, instructed AFP.
Donning a army t-shirt and scrawling in a pocket book, he referred to as the lots of engaged on the case “pioneers.”
Russia has blamed Ukraine for the dam’s destruction. Both sides have denied accountability.
It was underneath Russia’s management and the flooding difficult Ukraine’s counteroffensive within the south.
The proof collected within the village of Chornobaivka is only a small a part of Kyiv’s case.
“Our next point will be here, in this district of Kherson,” Ignatenko mentioned, pointing to a map.
“I’m not going there, it’s too dangerous,” one in every of his group protested.
The metropolis has been underneath fixed Russian shelling since Ukraine reclaimed it in November 2022.
Polluted soil
In Ukraine, ecocide – intentionally destroying the pure surroundings – is a selected felony offense.
While the Rome Statute that underpins the ICC doesn’t acknowledge “ecocide” as against the law in itself, its Article 8 states that large-scale environmental harm might be thought of a part of a battle crimes case.
But the evidential barrier is excessive.
It should be confirmed that one aspect carried out an assault, that it knew it might trigger “long-term and severe damage to the natural environment” and that the harm was “excessive” regarding any perceived army benefit.
Ukraine is unperturbed.
Maksym Popov, a particular adviser on environmental crimes to the Ukrainian Prosecutor General, has despatched greater than 400 prosecutors and investigators to collect proof and Kyiv plans to prosecute Russia each at house and internationally.
Standing subsequent to a row of homes, Ignatenko pointed to a mark on the wall above the bottom.
“The water flooded this field … After conducting an analysis, we will be able to determine whether there are traces of pesticide or hydrocarbons – polluted soil.”
Flooding washed away petrol stations and farmhouses storing pesticides, elevating considerations the land is now possible contaminated.
“When the water spilled out, it picked up pollutants and dumped them on land where farm animals were being kept,” Ignatenko mentioned.
For its case to succeed, Ukraine will first have to show Russia blew up the dam.
“That’s our conviction. Another investigation is underway to that end,” the prosecutor mentioned, as he packed a pattern of earth right into a plastic bag bearing the Ukrainian police brand.
On May 30 – per week earlier than the dam exploded – Russia adopted a legislation banning the investigation of incidents regarding “hydraulic structures” in elements of Ukraine it claims to have annexed.
‘Dynamic ecosystem’
About 300 kilometers (185 miles) upstream, on the outskirts of Zaporizhzhia, biologist Vadym Maniuk walked throughout the dry, crunchy floor.
Beneath his toes have been hundreds of thousands of freshwater mussel shells, scattered throughout the outdated mattress of the Kakhovka reservoir.
“There used to be four meters of water here,” Maniuk, an affiliate professor at Dnipro’s Oles Honchar University, instructed AFP.
“Billions of living organisms were killed suddenly, in a few days,” when the reservoir emptied, Maniuk mentioned.
To him, the fees of ecocide are plain given the size of the catastrophe.
But virtually six months later, life is returning, he mentioned.
“We have regained a dynamic ecosystem in just a few months,” he mentioned.
The floor is strewn with shells and carp skeletons – however goats have now taken to grazing on small shrubs.
Locals journey bicycles throughout the previous waterway, weaving between boulders.
Biologists comparable to Maniuk are at the moment in a tussle with Ukraine’s power business over whether or not to rebuild the dam.
“The scientists are against it, we’re fighting against the energy lobby,” he mentioned.
It generated “negligible” energy and an enormous reconstruction mission would harm the native surroundings as soon as extra, Maniuk argued.
“The people here have already made the area their own. For shepherds and fishermen, the conditions are better.”
Source: www.dailysabah.com