Ukraine can turn nature into a core pillar of national security through coordinated state and public action.
Environmental risks must be integrated into national security strategies and treated on par with military threats. Creating joint teams within the National Security and Defense Council would enable rapid response to toxic spills, radiation, and ecological disasters. Citizens can support this by documenting environmental damage at the local level.
Monitoring methods must be adapted for wartime conditions. Current peacetime tools ignore mines and explosions, leaving major damage unassessed. Modern technologies such as drones, satellites, and AI-based toxin analysis should be deployed. Open environmental damage databases would increase transparency and support international prosecutions and reconstruction claims.
International legal mechanisms already exist to prosecute environmental war crimes. The Rome Statute and Geneva Conventions prohibit severe, long-term environmental damage during warfare. These norms are binding under customary international law and cannot be revoked.
Recognizing ecocide as a separate international crime would strengthen accountability and pressure corporations and aggressor states. Ukraine is already advocating this globally.
Ukraine has adopted the Strategy for Environmental Security and Adaptation to Climate Change through 2030 and an implementation plan for 2025–2027. The next step is practical execution: modern monitoring, legal action, ecosystem restoration, and public participation.