Dolphins as casualties: The environmental costs of Ukraine war
War has turned a pristine, white-sand beach near the Ukrainian Black Sea resort town of Odesa into a crime scene.
The victims? Dolphins. The alleged crime? Ecocide, commonly understood as intentional mass damage to the environment and wildlife. And Ukraine is determined to hold Russia accountable for it.
Last year saw a sharp rise in the number of unexplained dolphin deaths and strandings, says Ivan Rusev, a marine biologist with a passion for Black Sea dolphins. Behind him, on the wall around the beach hut that he uses as an office, sits macabre evidence of the slaughter – six skulls that once belonged to bottlenosed dolphins and porpoises.
The Ukrainian authorities blame Russian military activity in the
