RUSSO-UKRAINIAN WAR: ENVIRONMENTAL THREATS AND NUCLEAR FEARS
Keywords:
Russo-Ukrainian war, environmental impacts of war, ecocide, nuclear fear, nuclear terrorism, heuristics of fearAbstract
The article is analyzing the environmental impacts of full-scale Russian aggression in Ukraine within the framework of modern approaches to assessing the war-environment interaction. This includes the concept of ecocide as the widespread, long-term, and severe damage to the natural environment.
The particularities of the current Russo-Ukrainian war are its hybrid character and scale, vast targeting of industrial and agricultural infrastructure, as well as weaponization of different kinds of resources and civilian nuclear facilities. Special attention is paid to the analysis of new threats of nuclear disaster resulting from the Russian occupation of the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant (ZNPP) and attacks on other civilian objects, which match nuclear terrorism and violate the principle of nuclear taboo (Nina Tannenwald), inducing nuclear fear. Such a fear is considered an expression of solidarity with all life forms threatened by nuclear disasters (Ulrich Beck). Russian nuclear terrorism is a speculation on nuclear fears and an exploitation of this feeling. Hans Jonas’ heuristics of fear could be a clue to transform the fear into effective actions to stop Russian aggression, nuclear blackmail, and terrorism.
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