GEOCHEMICAL FEATURES OF SOIL CONTAMINATION DURING THE WAR IN UKRAINE

Abstract

During the full-scale russian invasion in Ukraine, soil degradation and man-made landscape and geochemical anomalies are occurred in the area of intensive military operations as a result of rocket and artillery shelling over an area of tens of thousands square kilometers. Landscape changes and geochemical anomalies of enhanced heavy metal content in the soil are traditionally associated with numerous ammunition explosions. The intensity and scale of the war have posed to environmentalists and agricultural producers the problem of soil contamination by explosive residues (TNT, hexane, dinitrotoluene), which are considered to be toxic substances. Low-order detonation or partial detonation of ammunition with a significant shelf life creates quite large particles of toxic explosives that settle on the ground and form local sources of contamination with concentrations of up to several grams per square meter. Agricultural production on lands that have been subjected to intense artillery shelling can result in the presence of noticeable traces of toxic components of explosives in the products, which makes it impossible to safely consume and, accordingly, export grain crops. Quantitative assessment of contamination levels due to deposition of explosives’ residues must be determined by soil sampling. The situation of mosaic contamination requires the development of a special methodology that will provide for both a uniform grid of sampling points and concentration of samples near clearly expressed local sources of contamination. The relevance of developing and implementing a set of measures to control the level of agricultural soils contamination as a basis for economic assessment of the post-war agricultural land use strategy selected for the relevant location is noted.