In my hometown of Mykolaiv this summer, I met environmental scholar Inna Tymchenko. She is leading a campaign to preserve parts of a nearby national park, Buzkyi Gard, from flooding by a local nuclear power complex. Buzkyi Gard is situated around granite canyons and the rapids of the Southern Buh river – an unusual landscape amid the otherwise plain grasslands of southern Ukraine.
It might seem to those following the news that nothing in Ukraine exists outside of Russia’s war. It’s true that war encompasses all areas of life – but other struggles, such as for environmental or gender rights, continue too. Often chronically underfunded, Ukraine’s ecological initiatives and institutions are working in even tougher conditions as a result of Russia’s full-scale invasion.
Yet researchers, volunteers and activists – like Tymchenko – continue fighting for the lives of Ukraine’s ecosystems against construction companies, corporations and industries, while also facing the environmental impact of the Russian invasion. In Tymchenko’s case, she has led research and campaign efforts to protect Buzkyi Gard from development since 2015 – an effort that continues despite Russia’s war.
The development of Buzkyi Gard dates back to the late Soviet Union. In 1981, the authorities began building a hydroelectric power plant at Tashlyk reservoir that – together with the South Ukraine Nuclear Power Plant and Oleksandrivka Hydroelectric Power Station – now comprises part of the South Ukrainian Energy Complex.
The original intention was to build six hydroelectric power units, but waves of civic mobilisation ever since the 1980s mean the initial plan at Tashlyk has never been completed. Nonetheless, part of the scheme – a second reservoir, in Oleksandrivka – was built on a stream of the Southern Buh to supply water, which severely disrupted the flow of the river.
Eventually, after years of fighting for the unique landscape of granite canyons in the steppe, ecologists managed to establish the Hranitno-Stepove Pobuzhzhia area as a regional park in 1994, and Buzkyi Gard as a national park in 2009.
But Ukraine’s nuclear state enterprise Energoatom has not given up on completing the Tashlyk hydropower plant. In 2006, it raised the water level of the Oleksandrivka reservoir to 14.7 metres, resulting in the flooding of 27 hectares of protected territory. The current plan is to increase the reservoir level to 16.9 metres, with a potential further rise to 20.7. As Energoatom writes, it is doing so to increase electricity capacity during peak times and to offset Russia’s targeting of critical infrastructure.
The previous increase and the regulation of the Southern Buh has already negatively affected the river ecosystem, resulting in excess silt, salt and vegetation growth. The dam caused partial flooding of the rapids, which had provided oxygen, making the water fresh and similar to mountain rivers. The habitats of the sturgeon that spawned in the river were also destroyed. The Oleksandrivka reservoir has seen an intense proliferation (or ‘bloom’) of certain types of bacteria as a result of algae build-up. Research by Tymchenko and her colleagues has also demonstrated how tributaries of the Southern Buh are drying out. Amid the global climate emergency, scientists predict further temperature increases for the already arid steppe region, and a decrease in the river flow.
The island of Gardovyi, home to many endangered species, has already partially vanished underwater. If the construction of the Tashlyk plant is completed, it will result in further flooding and the loss of 16 habitats and species protected by the Bern convention, including the Eurasian otter, booted eagle and Dianthus hypanicus, a type of endemic carnation. Russia’s full-scale invasion caused an unprecedented scale of environmental destruction for Ukraine, especially affecting the country’s southern and eastern steppe regions. Many terrains, including conservation areas, remain occupied, and de-occupied areas are mined, damaged by military fortifications and trenches, contaminated or burnt. This makes areas that are not at the epicentre of fighting more valuable than ever as habitats for different species.
Moreover, areas around the Southern Buh rapids were once inhabited by Cossacks. The Russian Empire, which colonised southern Ukraine starting in the 17th century, attempted to either erase or suppress first the Cossack ways of living, and later cultural memory of them. The word gard stands for a fishing construction made on rivers, and the territory of the national park was once a place of a Cossack settlement. In times of Russia’s bloody attempt at re-colonisation, it is crucial to preserve Buzkyi Gard as a place of cultural heritage.
Environmental and local communities have been fighting for the preservation of Buzkyi Gard and the Southern Buh river for more than 40 years. Yet in the ninth year of Russia’s war, and the second year of the full-scale invasion, communities in Ukraine are depleted and have limited resources for mobilising. Russian bombing of the critical infrastructure of Ukraine has put additional pressure on the energy sector. But while energy security is crucial, it cannot be obtained at the immeasurable cost of destroying unique ecosystems and cultural heritage. There should be other ways.
Mykolaiv oblast has been significantly affected by the war. Many people have been displaced internally and abroad, and environmentalists and eco-activists are on the front lines. Some have been killed fighting Russia – among them Oleh Kravets, one of the leaders of the Buzkyi Gard campaign, who chained himself to the Gardovyi island in 2021.
Despite all this, environmentalists continue fighting for the life of ecosystems. In times of global climate emergency, Ukraine, like everywhere, deserves hope for a greener future and environmental justice.
