Kiev's "hero river" in distress: The Irpin stopped Russia's advance - now sunken tanks pose a danger
Created: 05/12/2022, 15:24
By: Magdalena von Zumbusch
A Russian tank has to stop in front of the Irpin River.
© IMAGO/Matthew Hatcher
A Ukrainian ecologist wants to call the river Irpin the “heroic river” because it played a key role in protecting Kyiv during the Ukraine war.
But at the same time he harbors danger.
Kyiv - Through the Kiev suburb of Irpin, the river of the same name, a tributary of Ukraine's largest river, the Dnieper.
A dam kept the River Irpin in check until recently.
Shortly after the start of the Ukraine war, when Russia's advance on Kyiv became apparent, Ukrainian troops opened this dam to protect the capital.
A swampy area emerged that may have played a key role in saving Kiev - but this rescue may come at the price of serious ecological consequences.
Role of the Irpin River in the Ukraine War: Saving Kiev by Ukraine's "Hero River"?
The shock of the Russian invasion was still felt when the Irpin burst its banks a few days after the start of the war - and massively played into the hands of Volodymyr Zelenskyy's defense strategy.
No coincidence: the dam had been deliberately opened.
According to the English newspaper
Guardian
, the military leadership of Ukraine decided to take this step in order to protect the capital at least in its north-west from the Russian invasion.
The Ukrainian ecologist Volodymyr Boreyka would therefore like to pay tribute to the river: In the future, he suggested to the
Guardian
that one should speak of Ukraine's "hero river" .
According to a report by the Ukrainian environmental organization Ukrainian Nature Conservation Group (UNCG), the dam was hit by a Russian missile.
The
Guardian
also says that the dam was hit by a projectile after it opened.
In any case, the dam of the Irpin is now open and the formation of the wet and marshland off Kyiv is a fact: According to the UNCG, in a month and a half the water from the reservoir flooded the Irpenaue as far as Gorenka, which is more than 20 kilometers upstream.
The collapse of the dam even caused the Irpin to flow together with the main river Dnepr in parts: meanwhile, the water reservoir of the giant river Dnieper has reached a length of two kilometers at its widest point – near the village of Demidov, which provided effective protection against Russian attacks from the north of the capital, as well as the swampland that arose elsewhere.
River Irpin: continued important protection of the capital in the Ukraine war
Alexey Wasilyuk, a biologist and chairman of the UNCG, continues to believe that the resulting wetlands and bogs are important protection against Russian troops.
Russia had to refrain from taking Kiev for the time being and is currently concentrating on taking southern and eastern Ukraine, but renewed attacks on Kyiv are conceivable.
According to Vasilyuk, he hopes that the flooded Irpin wetlands will be preserved until the long-awaited end of the war.
“Primarily these waters are now for the defense of Kyiv.
So until we are sure that Russia will not try to capture Kyiv again, I don't see how we can justify completely draining that area again."
Video: The city of the same name is located on the Irpin River - the media reported that it was completely destroyed
River Irpin: Great danger for the ecosystem north-east of Kyiv from the dam failure
But the return of water could bring as many problems as benefits, Vasilyuk said. "The local ecosystem in the Irpin River Basin was in poor condition even before the dam collapsed," he says in a UNCG report.
"And now there are a lot of Russian tanks and military equipment under water here. The mixing of chemicals and oils from fuel tanks with pollution from flooded landfills poses a great danger," he warns.
Since the evacuation of the Kyiv region, videos and photos of abandoned Russian junk - tanks and other military equipment stuck in the Irpin swamps outside of Kyiv - have been circulating on the Internet.
The fuel tank capacity of standard Russian tanks ranges from 500 to 1,600 liters, Vasilyuk said in the UNCG report.
In addition, the tanks would have lubricant tanks with an average capacity of around 100 liters.
One does not even want to imagine how many tons of diesel and oil ended up in the waters of the Irpin and Dnieper.
Lubricants and diesel fuel contain lead and other heavy metals, polycyclic arenes found in all heavy fossil fuels, Vasliyuk said.
The penetration of these substances into fish bodies leads to the destruction of the gill tissue and the intestines, to the secretion of mucus, to disturbances in breathing and in water and salt metabolism.
The use of such water in breeding leads to very serious reactions in the human body when the contaminated fish are eaten.
Rapid cleaning of the Irpin swampland would be essential: But in the middle of the Ukraine war there is no time
From the point of view of ecologists, a quick cleaning of the water is essential: A possible "ecocide" must be prevented - it is quite possible to clean the water, according to Vasilyuk.
But the country will not have the time to take the necessary measures before the end of the war, concludes the expert.
Russia's military strength and the Ukrainian determination to resist mean that an end to the war is not yet in sight.
(
mvz
)
