War in Ukraine releases massive pollutants, affecting air quality in Ukraine and neighboring countries like Lithuania.
🔗 Read the article on delfi.lt
[This is an automatically generated summary, for reference only]
Expert opinions suggest that pollution from military actions and other factors can affect air quality not only in Ukraine but also in neighboring countries, including Lithuania. Since the start of the war in Ukraine, at least 175 million tons of carbon dioxide equivalent have been emitted. The most harmful pollutants come from direct combat, fires, forced migration, and leaks from military attacks on energy infrastructure, with future carbon costs for reconstruction also included. These emissions, primarily carbon dioxide, nitrogen oxides, and sulfur hexafluoride, are comparable to the pollution from 90 million gasoline cars driven year-round. This pollution contributes to air quality issues, posing risks to human health, and exacerbating climate change and ecosystem damage, with these environmental harms having no borders. While Ukraine had pre-war pollution issues due to heavy industry, the situation changed during the war; initial reductions were linked to economic shutdown and mass displacement, but pollution has returned as the economy recovered and people returned to affected areas. Currently, both heavy industry and military actions are major sources of air pollution, with increased transportation emissions due to wartime population movements. Monitoring is focused in central Ukraine, and while monitoring has recently begun, the national air quality monitoring system is largely non-functional due to destruction and lack of funding. Environmental monitoring efforts in Ukraine have expanded to track substances potentially related to chemical weapons and radiation. Furthermore, pollution can travel long distances, and experts have noted instances of pollution from fires in Belarus affecting air quality in Lithuania.
