Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Wednesday denounced “ecocide” after the recorded death of thousands of dolphins in the Black Sea, directly linked according to him to the effects of the Russian invasion in Ukraine on the marine environment.
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“Thousands of dead dolphins have washed up on the shores of the Black Sea,” Zelensky said in a social media post, relaying a report by United24, an online crowdfunding platform he said. launched in early May.
“The Russian war has a huge impact on the fauna of our country,” he castigated, regretting its “devastating consequences” on ecosystems.
The Ukrainian president affirmed that the authorities responsible for environmental protection “collect the evidence of these crimes and intend to hold Russia responsible for this ecocide in Ukraine”.
According to the scientific director of the Lagunes de Touzly national park (south-west), interviewed in this report, the slaughter of dolphins in the Black Sea is due in particular to “the presence of submarines and warships” in the waters. since the end of February, which “has put enormous pressure on the marine environment”.
“We estimate that 50,000 dolphins died because of the war,” said Ivan Roussev, of whom 2,500 “were found (on the beaches) in the Odessa region, in annexed Crimea, but also in Bulgaria, in Turkey and Romania”.
This represents 20% of the population of this cetacean in the Black Sea, recorded at 250,000 in 2020 and which was already subject to pressure from fishing and pollution, according to Ukrainian authorities.
According to Mr Roussev, who keeps a well-followed Facebook diary on the effects of war on wildlife, some species of birds were also forced to “migrate” earlier in the year, pushed by the consequences of the “missiles that fell in the eastern part of the national park”.