Total climate damage due to the war makes $11 billion

Source: Ukraine’s environment ministry

The total climate damages due to the full-scale invasion of the Russian Federation amount to more than 11 billion dollars.

Within the UN climate change conference COP28, Ukraine’s environment ministry presented the data on the climate damage caused by the Russian invasion.

The total emissions after 18 months of full-scale war are estimated at 150 million tons of carbon dioxide. This exceeds the annual volume of emissions of such a highly developed country as Belgium.

22.2 million tons are caused by fires – a 36-fold increase in the first year of full-scale war compared to the 12 months before the invasion.

‘Russia must reimburse this amount as reparations for emissions caused by the war,’ said Ukrainian deputy minister Victoria Kireeva.

However, neither in international climate policy nor in the international humanitarian law is there a clear way to oblige Russia to do it.

In my previous column, I wrote about social innovations in Ukraine. Those innovations are part of civic resilience and the democratization of security, which Europe is paying close attention to right now. The EU is trying to work out how to spread responsibility for its own security across society as a whole, rather than leaving it to institutions alone. It is looking for concrete ways to bring ordinary people into the work of defense and resistance.

Petro Poroshenko’s lawyers have appealed to the High Anti-Corruption Court demanding that NABU be obligated to register proceedings regarding the fact of exerting influence on the court and to recognize Petro Poroshenko as a victim in the case of the Deputy Head of the Office of the President, Iryna Mudra, due to her pressure on Supreme Court judges who were considering a lawsuit to overturn sanctions.

Internationally recognized brands and financial institutions should direct capital to Ukraine now, not waiting for the hostilities to end. This was emphasized by Rinat Akhmetov, president of FC Shakhtar, during a working visit to UEFA headquarters in Nyon, Switzerland, where he met with UEFA President Aleksander Čeferin.

In recent days, Moscow’s official rhetoric has been dominated by hysteria over the decision of…

In 2025, the deadliest year yet for civilians, Ukraine’s three largest charitable foundations raised a record 105.9 billion hryvnias. It is more than the years 2022–2024 combined. According to the UN, humanitarian aid in Ukraine was delivered by more than 450 organisations, reaching five million people over the course of the year. Civic foundations hold licences to purchase lethal weapons, which is a function states have monopolised for centuries. These record sums were underwritten by international government grants, which means foreign states now channel billions directly through Ukrainian civic funds, bypassing inter-state channels. It is hard to imagine a stronger institutional trust in civil society.