The damage done to Ukraine is enormous: it will take centuries to restore it

“All military actions cause damage. If you single out which area has the most influence, it’s really all of them. Let’s understand that natural the environment is the entire ecosystem: it is air, water, soil, atmosphere, biodiversity. Practically all these spheres are damaged and very badly damaged”, A. Zigmontienė told about how the war in Ukraine affects the environment in the program “Delfi tema”.

She gave an example of soil contamination.

“It’s happening explosion, the explosive enters the soil. Consequently, the soil layer is broken up in that place, some grass cover is lost, and then organic carbon is lost. Organic carbon is precisely the main substance that is needed to maintain soil fertility. Therefore, in this land, for some period of time, until the soil recovers, practically no cultivation can take place, no agricultural activity,” said the scientist.

Along with the explosives, according to her, various heavy metals enter the soil, which can stay there, or go to surface water bodies, even reach underground water bodies.

“Again, this is a problem,” noted A. Zigmontienė.

“Oil products and heavy metals also enter the water. Let’s not forget that both in the soil and in the water, pollutants can reach humans through the food chain. And heavy metals like lead, cadmium are carcinogens that can cause cancer.

The natural environment has the potential to clean itself, but when such amounts of pollutants… For example, Ukrainian scientists have calculated and studied that the concentration of nitrates and other nitrogenous compounds exceeds 160 times in certain surface water bodies, rivers.

Nitrogen, nitrates are exactly what acidifies water bodies, which means that they affect the entire biosphere of water bodies. Another thing is that it promotes the so-called eutrophication processes.

And surface water bodies, which are internal, communicate with external ones – the Black Sea and others”, A. Zigmontienė continued to teach.

The explosions, she said, also affect forests, which burn, and at the same time it affects air pollution.

“There is an explosion, forests are starting to burn. Forests, as we know, are the lungs of our earth, they fight against carbon dioxide. And during the explosion and when the forests are burning, carbon dioxide is different.

It has already been calculated that in the period of approximately 7 months, somewhere around 35 million people divorced in Ukraine. tons of carbon dioxide – these are big numbers. This is a danger to itself, of course, to the nature and ecosphere of Ukraine, but all pollutants have no borders either. All these surrounding countries, and ultimately we too, really feel the influence”, said the interviewer.

According to her, it is possible to restore the infrastructure, clean up and dig out the waste faster, but in general, it will take centuries for the natural environment and soils to recover in Ukraine.

“I will give you one example: during the First World War, very large battles took place in France, near Calais – that was the region. At present, scientists have found that lead and cadmium concentrations after a hundred years (there) still exceed the permissible concentrations. Let’s imagine that the soil areas are very large.

Other thing, Ukraine before the war, it actually boasted that it had some of the most fertile soils. Just to restore the fertility, what to talk about to eliminate the pollution… Here it is not so simple that you take a small area, remove the soil, bring it clean and start bioremediation or other processes. This is not the case. The areas are very large, it will take a very long time. And for it to recover naturally, it really takes centuries”, said A. Zigmontienė.

You can find the full interview with the scientist about the war damage to Ukrainian nature and how we can help and support the attacked country below.

Virginija Ginevičienė, the head of the VMI of the Vilnius district, and the representative of the Lithuanian Riflemen’s Union support group for Ukraine spoke in more detail about the aid to Ukraine. Jonas Jonušas.