Oleksiy Vasylyuk, the Head of the Ukrainian Environmental Protection Group noted on July 22, 2022, that 90,000 tons of Ukrainian soil were uprooted by the explosions caused by Russian shelling and missile attacks.
Source: Oleksiy Vasylyuk, the Head of the Ukrainian Environmental Protection Group
“During the war, soil is one of the most vulnerable ecosystems. There are several main factors of land damage: the drive of heavy military equipment, the explosion of rockets and other types of weapons, and the construction of fortifications. As a result of these actions, the structure of the soil is disturbed, which in the future leads to erosion. The loss of fertility is obvious, because the fertile soil layer is on the very surface,” says Oleksiy Vasylyuk, the Head of the Ukrainian Environmental Protection Group.
But the thing is not only about physical damage to the soil. Another problem is its chemical damage.
“The explosion of each munition is a chemical reaction. 100% of the chemical part of the projectile enters the environment: some into the air, some immediately into the soil. Thus, aluminium, copper, and other heavy metals will end up in the ground. As a result of the oxidation of explosives, sulfur and nitrogen enter the air and soil,” explained the Head of the Ukrainian Environmental Protection Group.
Oleksiy Vasylyuk considers sulfur to be the most dangerous for soils.
These two photos show the field located in the Kharkiv region, southeast of Izium (east of Ukraine), before and after the Russian shelling. According to ecologists, here, on one square kilometer of the field, 50 tons of iron, 1 ton of sulfur compounds, and 2.35 tons of copper got into the soil.
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