Over and above the general death and destruction the Russia-Ukraine conflict will leave in its wake, the invasion could disturb highly sensitive nuclear and chemical waste in Chernobyl and Donbas.
Ukrainian officials said that Russian forces seized control of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant and its nuclear waste storage facilities last week.
Environmental experts are concerned that the invasion could create a permanent environmental catastrophe associated with nuclear material and other toxic chemicals stored throughout the regions.
The Chernobyl Power Complex lies around 130 km north of Kyiv, and about 20 km south of the border with Belarus.
An explosion at Chernobyl led to the worst nuclear disaster in human history, both in cost and casualty.
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According to the World Nuclear Association, in April 1986, core explosions and fires broke out at the plant, then under the control of the Soviet Union. Two workers died from the explosions. Large quantities of radioactive material contaminated the surrounding land, and a nearby city was evacuated.
After extensive fighting, the Ukrainian Ministry of Foreign Affairs has warned of the possibility of "another ecological disaster" at the site with Ukrainian officials reporting that radiation levels at Chernobyl has "exceeded" normal ranges in a number of places in the area due to damage sustained to nuclear waste storage facilities, a statement Russia has denied.
“The Russian Federation military is pushing beyond the previously established contact line, with their heavy military presence compounding soil, water, and air risks,” Kristina Hook, assistant professor of conflict management at Kennesaw State University, who studies environmental fallout of conflict in Ukraine wrote in an email to Motherboard.
“As of the time of this writing, it is also being reported that the Russian military has seized the Chernobyl exclusion zone, a factor that some Ukrainians refer to as holding Europe hostage.”
Outside of Chernobyl, experts fear Russian bombings in the Donbas region, a Russian-occupied separatist region in the eastern part of the nation, could lead to lasting environmental damage.
“The east of Ukraine is heavily industrial, full of chemical factories, run-down mines and thermal power plants. The potential for an environmental catastrophe to add to the horrific humanitarian crisis is enormous,” tweeted Richard Pearshouse, head of crisis and environment at Amnesty International in Geneva.
Fifteen nuclear power reactors across four power plants supply about half of Ukraine's electricity. If these sustain damage due to the ongoing fighting, they could release radioactive waste that would contaminate the area for thousands of years.