Ecocide in Ukraine

Russia’s war on Ukraine has not only destroyed millions of human lives, it has also been catastrophic for the environment. Forests and fields have been burned to the ground, animal and plant species pushed to the brink of extinction, soil and water contaminated with oil products, debris, and mines. On a single day in June 2023, the breached Kakhovka Dam flooded thousands of kilometres of protected natural habitat, as well as villages, towns, and agricultural land. The devastation of biodiversity and ecosystems across Ukraine has been immeasurable, long-lasting and its consequences stretch beyond national borders.

In this poignant book, Ukrainian researcher Darya Tsymbalyuk offers an intimate portrait of her beloved homeland against the backdrop of Russia’s war and ecocide. In elegant and moving prose, she describes the damage to the country’s rivers, the grasslands of the steppes, animals, insects, and colonies of birds, as a result of Russia’s ground and air operations. Alongside the everyday experiences of people in Ukraine living with the environmental consequences of the war, we share Tsymbalyuk’s own reckoning with the changing nature of cherished places and the loss of familiar worlds caused by the ongoing Russian invasion. Acknowledgements
Notes on Transliteration
Preface
Chronology
Map

1. Water
2. Zemlia
3. Air
4. Plants
5. Bodies
6. Energy

Notes

“Darya Tsymbalyuk’s is a powerful voice that speaks not only on behalf of millions of Ukrainians whose life was turned upside down by the Russian aggression against their homeland but also on behalf of the nature that has been destroyed by the war. A personal and powerful testimony on the destruction that still goes on.”

Serhii Plokhy, author of Chernobyl Roulette: A War Story

“Timely, necessary, galvanizing, enraging.”
Philippe Sands, UCL

“A gripping lament over the destruction that Russia has sowed into every nook of Ukraine’s natural environment. A must-read!”
Maria Popova, McGill University

“A supremely important book, in which all Ukrainians will recognize their disappearing landscape and the resilience of communities surviving the immense devastation and terror. Many have tried to write such a book, but only Tsymbalyuk has succeeded.”
Svitlana Matviyenko, Simon Fraser University

“A moving and beautifully written account of a country and its nature enduring war. At once analytical and deeply personal, it offers a unique window on to what is happening to the environment, society and culture in Ukraine”.
Emma Hakala, Finnish Institute of International Affairs

“Deeply personal and grounded in evidence, Tsymbalyuk's book is an elegy for what is lost in Ukraine to the violence of war. It documents the destruction of human and natural systems and provides insight into potential long-term consequences of military conflict.”
Lisa Brady, Boise State University

"Part memoir, part academic study, Ecocide in Ukraine is a marvellous and moving account of the massive destruction caused to the natural world by Russia's war. Darya Tsymbalyuk describes what has been lost. Fighting has wrecked the habits of unique flora and fauna, from rare mice to endangered flowers. An important and original account."
Luke Harding, author of Invasion: Russia's Bloody War and Ukraine's Fight for Survival, shortlisted for the Orwell Prize and Peterson Literary Prize

Darya Tsymbalyuk is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures at the University of Chicago. Her academic papers and public essays explore narratives about environments, multispecies worlds, displacement, embodied knowledge, and entangled colonial histories of Ukraine. Her writing has appeared on the BBC’s Future Planet and openDemocracy websites, among many other publications. In addition to her research and writing, Darya also works with images through drawing, painting, collage, and video essays.