Russia's front around the northern #Donbas town of #Lyman appears to have led to fighting in and around the Holy Mountains National Nature Park (Святі Гори національний природний парк), also: Sviati Gori. we've picked up fires around the park in the last week. #Ukraine 1/5 🧵🔽
The park (green area), which comprises chalk cliffs along the Donets river is 91% forested and is highly biodiverse, with 1/3 of the species found in #Ukraine recorded. Sviati Gori's boundaries are visible via protectedplanet.net/555719463 2/5
During the past week @NASA#FIRMS data records numerous fires in within the PA's eastern borders as the front line has pushed around #Lyman. 3/5
It's been fairly cloudy this week but @planet captured fires to the NW of the protected area's boundary yesterday (04/5). Artillery exchanges and other heavy weapons use along the front will inevitably trigger scrub and potentially forest fires, impacting habitats. 4/5
Sviati Gori is just one of a large network of protected areas in eastern #Ukraine, while the early conflict focused on towns, cities and roads, we are now seeing more scope for landscape and habitat impacts along frontlines. 5/5
DU is chemically toxic and radioactive, its use in large calibre ammunition can create lasting exposure risks for military personnel, those tasked to deal with military scrap, and civilians. Here's a little video of why DU is a problem. 2/9
Aside from these problems, and the way that it will likely encourage (further?) Russian DU use on Ukrainian territory ,#Ukraine may want to check what is actually on offer. Here's why... 3/9
3 weeks on from the pledging conference where the NL, FR, FI, DE, QT, SE, US, UK and others pledged half the $80m needed for the emergency salvage operation to remove oil from the SAFER tanker off #Yemen, where do things stand? 1/5
Last week the US and NL issued a joint statement urging "public and private donors to consider generous contributions to help prevent a leak, spill, or explosion" - $40m is a drop in the ocean... state.gov/joint-statemen… 2/5
... unlike the 1.14m barrels of oil on the SAFER, but as @Greenpeace has observed certainly in comparison to the gargantuan subsidies governments provide to oil companies on an ongoing basis, and their windfall profits at the moment reliefweb.int/report/yemen/c… 3/5
While attention has focused on the safety of the design of PWR reactors at #Zaporizhzhia NPP after last night's attack by #Russia and the fire, we also need to take the volume of radioactive waste stored at the site into account. 🧵⬇️ 1/x #Ukraine
As @friends_earth noted in 2015 “With a war around the corner, it is shocking that the spent fuel rod containers are standing under the open sky, with just a metal gate and some security guards waltzing up and down for protection.” ourworld.unu.edu/en/nuclear-was… 2/x
As of 2015, "more than 3,000 spent #nuclear fuel rods are kept inside metal casks within towering concrete containers in an open-air yard close to a perimeter fence at #Zaporizhia." 3/x
For more insights on how the #Ukraine invasion is impacting wheat exports, and the implications of that for #FoodSecurity and political stability in the MENA and elsewhere.
We're seeing increasingly heavy shelling of residential areas in #Ukarine. Alongside the massive civilian costs of the use of explosive force in cities, we also need to consider how this indiscriminate practice impacts the environment, and as a result, human health. 🧵🔽 1/x
2/x When buildings are hit, building materials are pulverised, generating large volumes of dust. PBM dusts are typically a heterogeneous mixture of materials, such as cement, metals, PCBs, silica, asbestos and other synthetic fibres. ceobs.org/conflict-rubbl…
3/x In spite of this being an issue in every conflict where heavy weapons are used in populated areas, research on these dusts and exposures is largely absent, as with most chronic health exposures linked to conflict.
Disputed claims from #Russia and #Ukraine over control of the Zaporizhzhia #Nuclear plant (and its 6 reactors). In welcome move Ukraine formally requesting @iaeaorg oversight of #Chernobyl zone occupied by Russia