Ukraine: Ground Zero
People and Power investigates the toxic legacy of war on Ukraine’s fragile environment.
Journalist Nick Lazaredes investigates the toxic fallout of the war in Ukraine and the environmental effects of the conflict that scientists say will be felt for decades to come.
Ukraine is home to some of the most biodiverse and unique ecosystems on the planet, and its rich fertile plains provide food to the world. More than a year after Russia’s invasion and occupation of parts of Ukraine, many of those ecosystems have been fragmented and reduced to ash, with vast tracts of forests destroyed, agricultural lands and soil contaminated, and rivers degraded. In the Black Sea, dolphins are washing up by the hundreds, harbingers of an impending environmental crisis brought about by war.
People and Power follows Ukrainian prosecutors and forensic investigators tasked by the government with building an environmental war crimes case against Russia as the ICC comes under increasing pressure to prosecute such alleged crimes.