Ukraine Launches Landmark Legal Action to Hold Russia Accountable for ‘Ecocide’

On 23 January 2026, Ukraine’s Ministry of Economy, Environment and Agriculture confirmed it had successfully compiled a database of 10,668 eco-crimes, estimating the environmental damages of the war at a staggering £108 billion. This database will serve as the foundation for Ukraine’s accusations that Russia is using ecocide as a weapon of war.

This milestone follows a major diplomatic conference in December 2025, hosted by the Council of Europe and the Netherlands, where 52 countries and the European Union approved a legal agreement to establish the International Claims Commission for Ukraine. Once ratified later this year, this new commission will assume responsibility for handling damages claims in Ukraine, taking over from the existing Register of Damages.

While there is currently no international law specifically criminalising ‘ecocide,’ Ukraine’s domestic Criminal Code defines it as “the mass destruction of flora and fauna, poisoning of air or water resources, and also any other actions that may cause an environmental disaster”.

Ukraine is actively pursuing legal action through its own courts and international initiatives to hold Russian President Vladimir Putin and his army accountable for long-term ecological damage. The case is supported by the UN General Assembly, which agreed in November 2022 that Russia must compensate Ukraine for war damages, and by the Council of Europe, which adopted a Register of Damages in February 2025 that included a mechanism for environmental claims.

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Documenting Unprecedented Devastation

Russia’s full-scale invasion, launched in February 2022, has caused untold devastation and human suffering – but the war’s impact extends far beyond cities and communities. Ukraine is home to 35% of Europe’s biodiversity and has experienced environmental damage on an unprecedented scale. The country has seen vulnerable habitats consumed by wildfires, plants and animals pushed to the brink of extinction, widespread soil and water contamination, and an estimated 237 million tonnes of conflict-related CO₂ emissions.

To address this, Ukraine passed a resolution in March 2022 setting out a plan to systematically identify, categorise, and calculate the damages and losses caused by Russian armed aggression.

A spokesperson for Ukraine’s Ministry of Economy, Environment and Agriculture told Byline Times:

Ukraine will continue to systematically record and document all types of damage caused by the armed aggression of the Russian Federation, including damage to the environment, the economy, and its citizens. The collected data and evidence form the basis for holding the aggressor accountable under international law and for ensuring justice and compensation for Ukraine and its citizens within the framework of the international compensation mechanism.

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The Kakhovka Dam Disaster

Considered one of the largest ecological disasters of the war, the blowing up of the Kakhovka Dam by the Russian military in June 2023 is currently being investigated as a war crime under international humanitarian law and as an act of ecocide under Ukrainian domestic law.

The resulting floodwaters submerged entire ecosystems, including over 80,000 hectares of farmland, forests, wetlands, and floodplains. Critical river and wetland habitats that once served as breeding grounds and refuges for wildlife were obliterated and transformed into barren sediment plains. The displacement of sediments and spread of pollutants severely degraded water quality, affecting aquatic life far downstream to the northwestern Black Sea coast.

Consequently, more than 11,000 tonnes of fish were killed – including commercially important species – and vital spawning grounds were destroyed, threatening populations for years. Habitats for waterbirds, amphibians, small mammals, and reptiles were ruined, and many wild animals drowned. Experts estimate that 28 globally threatened species, such as the European mink, Great Bustard, and Harbour porpoise, were directly affected.

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The Hidden Threat to Wildlife

The UN Mine Action Service estimates that 139,000 km² of Ukrainian territory – an area larger than England, making up 23% of the country – has been contaminated with landmines and unexploded ordnance (UXO) since the war began, endangering humans and wildlife alike. Serhii Khara, an ecologist and campaigner for Greenpeace Ukraine, noted in November 2025 that these hidden weapons fragment habitats, kill wildlife, and could take up to 100 years to clear.

This contamination puts large, charismatic mammals at severe risk, including brown bears, grey wolves, Eurasian lynx, wildcats, moose, and European bison – species that have already vanished from other parts of Europe.

One of the species most in danger is the iconic Przewalski’s horse, the world’s last truly wild equine. Once extinct in the wild, the horses were successfully reintroduced into protected areas like Ukraine’s Chernobyl Exclusion Zone (CEZ) in 1998. Prior to the war, surveys suggested there were around 150 individual horses in the CEZ, representing 8% of the global population and marking a rare success in large-mammal conservation.

However, Russian forces occupied the CEZ early in the invasion (February to late March 2022), leaving minefields and UXO scattered across the animals’ range when they retreated to Belarus. Experts warn that these mines threaten the long-term survival of the species by disrupting migration routes, breeding grounds, and feeding areas.

In May 2024, images captured by a thermal drone confirmed a Przewalski’s horse was killed by a Russian mine. In June 2025, the Ukrainian Border Service discovered the maimed body of a second wild horse on an abandoned forest road near the Belarus border.

The presence of these mines also prevents conservationists from safely conducting population surveys, assessing animal health, or providing veterinary interventions, leaving the remaining horses entirely unmonitored. Without urgent action, the impacts on all large mammal populations could last for generations.

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Scorched Earth and Forest Fires

The destruction of physical land extends to vast conservation sites. Recent assessments estimate that over 900 protected areas – including steppe ecosystems, primeval forests, wetlands, and migratory routes covering an area larger than the island of Cyprus – have suffered damage from fires or military activity.

Research by the University of Bologna estimates that around 1.6 million hectares of forest and its supported wildlife were lost between 2022 and 2023. This includes an 80% loss of forest to fires in the biodiversity hotspot of Sviati Hory National Park in the Donetsk region. The Askania Nova Biosphere Reserve, one of Europe’s largest and most intact steppe ecosystems, has also suffered fire damage spanning tens of thousands of hectares.

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The Push for a Global ‘Ecocide’ Law

Ukraine’s legal actions against Russia belong to a wider global movement led by groups like Stop Ecocide International and the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). These organisations advocate for ‘ecocide’ to be added as a fifth international crime to the Rome Statute, allowing it to be prosecuted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) on par with genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes, and the crime of aggression.

Alex Sobel MP, Chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Ukraine, has strongly backed this initiative.

“There have been numerous episodes of ecocide in Ukraine carried out by Russia. It is clear to me that, within the framework of the International Criminal Court, ecocide should be added to the existing classifications of crimes,” Sobel told Byline Times.

He noted that the creators of the Genocide Convention, such as Raphael Lemkin, could not have foreseen the crime of ecocide after the Second World War. “Today, however, we have many examples of environmental destruction being utilised either by private commercial companies or by governments as a tool of war,” Sobel added, emphasising the importance of incorporating ecocide into the ICC’s jurisdiction.

Although Russia is unlikely to recognise a judgment against it for climate or biodiversity damage, a successful prosecution by Ukraine would be highly symbolically significant. It would strengthen the momentum toward officially recognising ecocide as an international crime, carrying major implications for wars both past and present.