This issue of the London Ukrainian Review looks into Russia’s war on nature in Ukraine and its global repercussions. The editor Sasha Dovzhyk reflects on how Ukrainian and international responses to Russia’s wanton damage to the environment shape our present and future.

Jojo Mehta speaks about the addition of ecocide as the fifth international crime to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, the impact of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine on international legal discourse, and the significance of the destruction of the Kakhovka Dam for the debate.

The bird observing the devastation brought by the destruction of the Kakhovka Dam, the house of an artist uprooted by the flood, the trees stripped of their leaves by a blast wave: Kateryna Mikhalitsyna’s poems give them a voice so they can testify about Russia’s war crimes.

While imagining the war’s clear end might feel therapeutic, Svitlana Matviyenko seeks to shake our imaginations into envisioning the forms of coexistence and mutual care in the world of radioactive colonialism, where the end of occupation is delayed to the point of never.

The war has changed the relationship of Ukrainians with their landscapes, memory, identity, and belonging. Referring to dozens of works, which manifest an environmental strand in contemporary Ukrainian culture, Kateryna Iakovlenko questions our place in the deadly terrain of the war.

The inclusion of ecocide and the need for immediate protection of the environment in Ukraine’s peace formula advance the rule of law globally. Thammy Evans discusses Ukraine’s recent legislative revisions, which expand our understanding and improve responsible governance of the ecosystem that sustains us.

Roman Adrian Cybriwsky’s Along Ukraine’s River: A Social and Environmental History of the Dnipro (2018) explores the river which has become the frontline of Russia’s invasion today. Marjukka Porvari’s review focuses on the colonial history of the Dnipro from Tsarist to Soviet times.