The ongoing war in Ukraine has significantly disrupted agricultural land use, leading to reduced cropland areas, increased land abandonment, and heightened uncertainty in food production. This study presents a multi-year assessment of war-induced agricultural land use changes in Ukraine using machine learning-based classification applied to Sentinel-1 and Sentinel-2 satellite imagery. By leveraging cloud computing platforms, […]
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CLIMATE DAMAGE CAUSED BY RUSSIA’S WAR IN UKRAINE
Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine drove greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) up by 75 million tonnes of CO2 equivalent (tCO2e) in the war’s fourth year, bringing the total since 24 February 2022 to 311 million tCO2e. This large figure is comparable to the annual emissions of France or half of Germany’s yearly emissions.
While emissions rose across all impact categories during the fourth year, war-driven landscape fires surged for the second consecutive year. Unusually hot and dry conditions — likely intensified by global warming — turned even minor sparks from combat into uncontrollable blazes, as firefighting remained impossible. This vicious cycle underscores how armed conflict and climate change exacerbate one another. Emissions from reconstruction efforts also spiked, particularly in the energy sector, as Russia escalated attacks on Ukraine’s electricity and heating infrastructure during the harsh winter of 2025–2026.
