Greta Thunberg highlights environmental cost of war in Kyiv meeting with Zelensky
CNN
Published: 30 Jun 2023
Climate activist Greta Thunberg visited Kyiv on Thursday to draw attention to the environmental impact of war in a meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and environment officials.
Her visit comes after the collapse of Ukraine’s Nova Kakhovka dam on June 6, which Thunberg previously slammed as “ecocide” resulting from Russia’s invasion. Both Moscow and Kyiv have blamed each other for attacking the dam.
No one can be “unbothered” by the “horrific developments taking place now in Ukraine and the crimes committed by Russia,” she said.
Some background: The collapse of the Nova Kakhovka dam is one of the biggest industrial and ecological disasters in Europe for decades. The catastrophe destroyed entire villages, flooded farmland, deprived tens of thousands of people of power and clean water, and caused massive environmental damage.
It’s still impossible to say whether the dam collapsed because it was deliberately targeted or if the breach could have been caused by structural failure. The dam and hydroelectric power plant are under Russian control and therefore inaccessible to independent investigators, leaving experts around the world trying to piece together what happened based on limited visual evidence.
Several Western officials have blamed Russia for the disaster, either directly accusing Moscow of targeting the dam or saying that Russia is responsible simply because it is the aggressor in the war on Ukraine.