‘Ecocide’ is being used as a weapon of war in Ukraine. It should be one of the crimes tried in the International Criminal Court

Russia is making sure that it harms Ukraine’s military campaign as much as possible by destroying infrastructure and roads and forcing authorities to invest time and resources in their reconstruction. Every resource invested in saving or rebuilding a region, whether human or material, deprives the military-industrial complex of the same resource. This is a broad-spectrum war tactic aimed at limiting Ukrainian capabilities in several sectors, particularly in the military sector.

I am a professor of international relations in the history department at Université Laval and my co-author, Sophie Marineau, is a doctoral student in history at the Université catholique de Louvain. The war in Ukraine and the international reaction to the conflict have been the focus of our research since 2014.

A deliberate gesture

The word ecocide comes from the Greek word oïkos (house) and the Latin word caedere (to kill): the action of killing the Earth.

According to historian David Zierler, ecocide is the deliberate destruction of ecology and the environment as a weapon of war. Laurent Neyret, a legal expert who specializes in environmental law, defines ecocide as, “any widespread or systematic action included in a list of offences which cause widespread, lasting and serious damage to the natural environment, and is committed deliberately and with full knowledge of the action.”

Vietnam War

The study of ecocide as a weapon of war can be traced back to the Vietnam War, when the Americans carried out large-scale bombing campaigns to render the territory hostile and uninhabitable for the population and the National Front for the Liberation of the South, notably through the use of Agent Orange. Since then, several attempts by members of the international community to have ecocide recognized as an international crime, have failed. The struggle carries on to this day.

Since the start of the Russian invasion in February 2022, the Ukrainian president has deplored the lack of international recognition of ecocide, and the fact that the International Criminal Court (ICC) does not recognize it as a crime.

International Criminal Court

The four crimes over which the ICC has jurisdiction are genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity and aggression. In a video on his Telegram channel, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy states that Russia is guilty of the war crime of aggression and that brutal ecocide can be added to the list following the destruction of the Khakovka dam in June 2023.

By linking ecocide to the other crimes over which the ICC has jurisdiction, Zelenskyy hopes to draw the international community’s attention to the severity of the damage the war has caused. The World Bank has already estimated reconstruction costs for the whole of Ukraine to be close to US$500 billion.

The destruction of the Kakhovka dam could eventually prompt the International Criminal Court to include ecocide as a fifth crime under its jurisdiction.

Rupture of the Kakhovka dam

According to a UN report, the deliberate destruction of the Kakhovka dam, located in southern Ukraine and under Russian army occupation, on June 6, 2023, caused devastating flooding over 620 km².

The dam burst killed at least 40 Ukrainian civilians, flooded some 4,400 homes and displaced over 4,000 people in the Kherson and Mykolaivska oblasts. The report also points to extensive damage to the region’s ecosystem, including its fishing industry. Over 11,388 tonnes of fish were lost. Some 11,294 hectares of forest were also destroyed by the floods. At the same time, following the dam’s destruction, almost a million people were left without drinking water.

It should also be noted that Russia refused UN aid to help flood-stricken Ukrainians.

Not an isolated case

Unfortunately, the Khakovka dam is not an isolated case in this war. Russia has targeted other dams, including Oskil and Pechenihy. It has also carried out attacks around the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, which is five times larger than the Chernobyl plant, whose 1986 explosion will potentially cause up to 25,000 additional cancers in Europe by 2065.

The Russian army has also turned the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant into a military base, knowing full well that the Ukrainian army will never target it so as to avoid any incidents, even if a counter-offensive were to be launched in the region.

Numerous other industrial sites that have been damaged or destroyed by Russian strikes have caused dangerous chemicals to leak into rivers, lakes and the Ukrainian ecosystem, in general.

More recently, on Aug. 26, 2024, Russia launched a massive strike against the Kyiv hydroelectric power plant. Water and power cuts were reported, but according to Ukrainian authorities the plant was not critically damaged. By targeting energy infrastructure, Russia was aiming to demoralize Ukrainians by depriving them of water and electricity over the long term.

Non-binding international law

Since ecocide is not currently a criminal offence under international law, Ukraine could prosecute alleged perpetrators of ecocide under its own criminal code. Article 441 of this code defines ecocide as, “mass destruction of flora and fauna, poisoning of air or water resources, as well as any other action likely to cause an environmental catastrophe.” The code carries a prison sentence of between eight and 15 years.

Ukraine is not alone in its campaign to have ecocide recognized as an international crime. Vanuatu made the proposal in 2019, which was recently supported by Fiji and Samoa, two Pacific island states that are particularly vulnerable to climate change and rising oceans. A formal application was submitted to the ICC on Sept. 9, 2024.

If ecocide were to be recognized as a new ICC jurisdiction, Ukraine would be entitled to initiate proceedings against Russia for the deliberate damage it has inflicted on Ukraine’s territory as part of the war.

Renéo Lukic, Professeur titulaire de relations internationales, Université Laval and Sophie Marineau, Doctorante en histoire des relations internationales, Université catholique de Louvain (UCLouvain)

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