The war is causing major disruptions to Ukraine’s ecosystems, particularly water and acoustic ecology, with constant bombing and air defense activity affecting all living beings.
by Nataliya Zubar
This is a painting of a very common European bird called waterhen (Gallinula chloropus).
The Polish painter Jozef Chelmonski might have seen it in Poland, in Germany or in Ukraine, he worked in all three countries. You’ve seen it everywhere in Europe.
What you have probably never seen yet is the waterhen killed by a Russian bomb, missile, drone directly or indirectly by the shockwave caused by the distant bombing or air defence systems. My team of war journalists see these daily in Kharkiv and around. They increasingly float dead in the rivers, lakes and ponds.
Those lucky waterhens who survived the daily bombing of Kharkiv or Kyiv or other Ukrainian city may fly to Germany for the cold season bringing the particles of explosives and other war residues. Nobody knows what residues they will bring on their wings. Viruses, bacterias, poisons, anything can be transferred by the birds.
Waterhens like most animals cannot adapt to the war. And the war is a huge climate changer, even the one that may seem very local. Disruptions of ecosystems in Ukraine are huge, the biggest impacts are on water and… acoustic ecology. Bombing and air defence disrupts the sleep of all living beings. Most drones are flying in the dark over the cities, reclaiming the airspace from birds.
The more air defence is supplied, the more Russians are trying to overwhelm it, causing more acoustic terror, which impacts waterhens, other birds, bugs, dogs, and any living beings… including humans.
Acoustic terror causes chronic stress in humans as our research supported by the Konrad Adenauer Stiftung has revealed. Chronic stress exacerbates existing health conditions and causes new illnesses. Waterhens die quickly, people are more adaptive, their health deteriorates slowly.
Do the numerous programs for “rebuilding Ukraine” prevent the death of waterhens? Do they prevent the chronic stress of human victims of acoustic terror? No, because the underlying cause is not removed, the terrorist is not stopped. Do any humanitarian interventions in Ukraine help to stop Russia from bombing Ukraine? No.
Humanitarian aid is important and is needed for the people to survive… until the next Russian missile or drone strike. It is a band aid for the victim, which has nothing to do with stopping the offender, Russia.
I live in Kharkiv just 30 kilometres away from the Russian state border. Have any interventions been successful in stopping Russia from testing all kinds of munitions on us, humans or animals? No. The longer the aggressor bombs us, the longer it is appeased, the higher risks they will test more weapons on us, including bioweapons. Because why not? They have already bombed nuclear facilities in Kharkiv.
Starting two days ago Russians test in Kharkiv a new low cost drone named “lightning” or “Molniya” in Russian or “der Blitz” in German, capable of carrying up to 3 kilograms of something, any shit, which will be brought to Berlin by a waterhen, flying away from the Blitzkrieg.
Presented on November 14, 2024 in Berlin at the 19th annual conference of the Kyiv Dialogue “Decentralized Democracy and Local Resilience”.
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