In Ukraine, remnants of bunkers and shells lodged in trees serve as archives and witnesses to nearly 100 years of violence. As Nataliia Miroshnyk argues in her contribution to the “Pluriverse of Peace” series, these remnants reflect the intensity of the fighting and the continuity of the landscape’s memory.
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Memories of violence are inscribed in spaces and environments of all kinds, including memorials, religious shrines, border areas, and natural environments. These memories are also embedded in people’s bodies and minds. And they are also part of collective identification and development. Places and landscapes act as memory archives, formed by and forming society and specific groups of people through the ways violence is experienced, committed, remembered, transformed, and retained by generations. This includes the embodiment of the interconnection between violence, memory, the body, and landscape.
Cinema has highlighted the idea of land and landscape as archives, environments, and metaphors for describing violence and trauma in connection with the negative environmental consequences of short-sighted agricultural, industrial, and other policies. These links have been examined in the context of warning future generations about nuclear burial sites, which represent a profound and irreversible transformation of landscapes and territories.
Memory and loss
All of this can be applied to Ukraine’s territory and landscapes, which have been silent witnesses to wars and violence for centuries. These include the First and Second World Wars, the Chernobyl nuclear disaster of 1986, and Russia’s invasions of Ukraine in 2014 and 2022. Remnants of bunkers, shells embedded in trees, and other weapons serve as archives and witnesses to nearly 100 years of violence. These remnants reflect the intensity of the fighting and the continuity of the landscape’s memory.
Some of the consequences of the bombing of Ukraine amount to ecocide, such as the destruction of the Kakhovka Reservoir dam and the subsequent draining of the reservoir, or the destruction of entire cities along with their inhabitants, including Volchansk, Bakhmut, Soledar, Avdiivka, Maryinka, Severodonetsk, Lysychansk, Mariupol, and Kupiansk, among others. There have been chemical disasters, such as the explosion of oil storage tanks in Chernihiv in 2022. Accidents have resulted from the bombing of chemical plants producing nitric acid, gas pipelines, and the Togliatti-Odessa ammonia pipeline. There has also been cross-border pollution of the Black and Azov Seas, resulting in a catastrophic loss of biodiversity.
Who are the victims of war? Only people? What about the damaged landscapes and non-human nature, which remember and preserve the results of war for much longer than human life? Or future generations of Ukrainians who will have to deal with nuclear disasters, nuclear waste disposal, and nuclear power plants? Or the cities that bear the brunt of bombing first in modern wars, such as Belgrade in the Kosovo War (1999), Aleppo (2012-2016) in the Syrian Civil War, and Ukrainian cities since Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022?
Environmental warfare
The impact of war on landscapes and soils, which are the basis of human and non-human life, has been addressed. Processes of urban destruction and warfare against cities have been noted, and research has been conducted on the impact of war on non-human life. I want to bridge the gap between knowledge about war from the bottom up – from those affected, both human and non-human – and those who make decisions. I will focus on the understanding that war distances us from sustainable development goals and brings us closer to the environmental crisis of global warming.
Behind the definition of war as a form of political mediation or the “continuation of politics and economics by other means” are thousands of deaths, destroyed cities, and the pollution of land, water, and air. These irreversible effects affect all life on Earth and exacerbate the climate crisis, bringing global climate change, ecosystem destruction, and land and water redistribution closer due to rising ambient temperatures.
Far-reaching devastations
Russia’s war against Ukraine poses a clear nuclear threat. The city of Chernihiv and the Chernihiv region are directly affected by this threat because the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant is located here. Russian troops occupied the plant in 2022, and it poses a serious danger as one of the largest nuclear waste repositories.
Chernihiv, a city in northern Ukraine, is located 66 kilometers from the Russian border and 78 kilometers from the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant. Spanning 78 square kilometers, the city had a population of approximately 300,000 prior to the large-scale invasion in 2022. Intense fighting took place in Chernihiv and the surrounding region in the spring of 2022. Chernihiv was under siege for 42 days and was subjected to intense shelling by Russian troops, particularly by aircraft. Shelling and warfare in the Chernihiv region continues, particularly in border villages. Currently, more than ten villages and small towns in border areas have been destroyed by shelling. The towns of Semenivka, Hirsk, and Horodnia are subjected to heavy shelling daily. Towns and villages in the Chernihiv region are slow to recover from the shelling. Only the military and those who cannot leave, such as vulnerable groups and individuals who maintain critical infrastructure, remain in these towns. Many middle-aged individuals with children are leaving in search of work and safety. There is massive internal and external migration from regions under heavy bombardment to safer regions or other countries.
This territory is home to archives and witnesses to the succession of wars and environmental disasters. Monuments to fallen soldiers, remnants of partisan dugouts, and Second World War museums are everywhere. The 1986 nuclear disaster at Chernobyl turned much of the region into a zone of heightened radiological control. This resulted in thousands of people experiencing chronic radiation exposure and cancer, as well as long-term health consequences for all living things in the area. It has also caused the ecological migration of large numbers of people to uncontaminated areas. Similar processes are now taking place in connection with the war.
“Do not walk anywhere outside the pedestrian path.”
In August 2023, we conducted field research in Chernihiv on the state of green spaces and the effects of warfare in 2022. We studied the degree of urbanization in the city, the condition of seven parks, the extent to which the fighting affected them, how traffic impacted the terrain, and the composition of the flora. Due to the absence of markings indicating where the territory was mined and where it was not, we had to ensure our own safety and that of our team in the parks and suburban areas. Therefore, I relied on the advice of local residents and guides because those who did not leave during the occupation or returned immediately after the deoccupation knew the area well and simply told me, “You can only walk on the path. Do not walk anywhere outside the pedestrian path.” Based on our surveys, we created a map of Chernihiv indicating mine hazards.
Even a year after the siege was lifted, the area was de-occupied, and part of the territory was checked for mines, there was still a real danger of finding unexploded ordnance. We found significant damage to trees and soil caused by explosions and shells. Almost the entire upper part of the trees – the crowns – were destroyed, and 50-80% of the trunks were damaged by shell fragments and fires. The tree stands are severely weakened and drying out. City parks such as ‘City Garden’ and ‘Maryin Hai’ have 5-10% mechanical damage from shelling. There has been significant damage to trees in forest areas and parks in the Podusivka, ‘Ski Base,’ and Yalivshchyna microdistricts as a result of rocket shelling during the 2022 siege of the city. A redistribution of car traffic on the city’s roads has been identified, which significantly affects air pollution. The situation with harmful air emissions from car traffic is worst in the center and western parts of the city due to the military situation (low car speeds near checkpoints at city exits and many trucks).
We surveyed the Ski Base forest area, which, due to its proximity to enemy equipment, was subjected to shelling and increased mine danger during the 2022 occupation. However, about 400 people whose homes were bombed and burned down have settled in temporary modular houses on this facility’s grounds. The green spaces in the forest area are severely damaged.
We also documented damage to green spaces caused by shelling, fires, and shrapnel in various parts of the city. There was particularly significant damage on the northern edge of the city and in the village of Novoselivka, which was occupied the entire time and subjected to heavy shelling.
Are there only costs and no lessons?
In the coming years, the impact of the war in Ukraine will determine the restructuring of the EU and all countries involved, including the social order, culture, production, economic ties, and technical progress. The catastrophic transformation of a country’s landscape has significant and lasting consequences for neighboring countries and the global economy. Chernihiv, a border city that has experienced siege and occupation and is now recovering and adapting to current realities, illustrates the main processes and connections currently taking place throughout Ukraine.
These include the destruction of landscapes, cities, soils, industry, and critical infrastructure (e.g., ensuring an uninterrupted supply of clean drinking water, food, and medicine; electricity; and food production and delivery); the exhaustion of ordinary people; and the accumulation of social problems, such as deepening poverty, poor medical care, the vulnerability of the population, falling birth rates, significant migration from destroyed regions, sharp price increases due to rampant inflation, and the accumulation of war victims, veterans, and military personnel in need of housing, complex medical procedures (e.g., expensive reconstructive surgery, prosthetic limbs, and expensive life support systems and/or lifelong medication). These individuals need to be treated, rehabilitated, provided benefits, and integrated into society. Additionally, the population is aging rapidly due to the migration of working mothers with children abroad and the deaths of working-age men in conflicts. These factors constitute a fairly rapid genocide of the Ukraine’s population.
Today, there are more armed conflicts than at any time since World War II. From our school history lessons, we know that the most significant scientific and technological advances were made for the sake of victory in war and were only applied for the benefit of humanity afterwards. So, can we imagine war as a process of humanity’s maturation? When will humanity finally come of age?