Has Russia committed ecocide in Ukraine?

On 6th June 2023, the Nova Kakhovka dam was breached while under Russian occupation, releasing a wave of toxic pollution into Ukraine’s rivers. The number of casualties – both human and animal – may never be fully known. 

Ukraine is one of a small number of countries to include ecocide in its domestic criminal code, and the destruction of Kakhovka Dam is one of hundreds of incidents that prosecutors are studying while building environmental damages cases against Russia. On the global stage, Ukraine is leading efforts for the International Criminal Court to recognise ecocide as the fifth core international crime, alongside genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity, and aggression.  

Bertie speaks to Darya Tsymbalyuk, Assistant Professor of Slavic Languages and Literatures at the University of Chicago, about her new book, “Ecocide in Ukraine: The Environmental Cost of Russia’s War.” They discuss the destruction of the Kakhovka Dam, the sensory impact of war, and Tsymbalyuk’s intention to bring Ukrainian environmentalists and humanities scholars into this growing legal dialogue.  

Buy a copy of Ecocide in Ukraine: The Environmental Cost of Russia’s War from Polity Press here.   

Further reading: 

Destruction og Ukraine dam casued 'toxic timebomb' of heavy metals, study finds, The Guardian, March 2025 

Ukraine's Ravaged Environment, The New York Times, April 2025 

Constellations of Ukranian Thought and the Environmental Humanities, Tanya Richardson and Darya Tsymbalyuk, 2024 

What my body taught me about being a scholar of Ukraine and from Ukraine in times of Russia’s war of aggression, Springer Nature – Darya Tsymbalyuk, July 2023 

 The unlikely species entangled in Ukraine's resistance to Russia, BBC, February 2024 

A Landmine Detonates in the Woods, IWM – Darya Tsymbalyuk, October 2022 

Darya’s fundraising for Ukraine  

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