"Effect would be comparable to Chernobyl": Polish journalist sees targeted Putin tactics in Donbass

Created: 06/16/2022, 05:07

By: Aleksandra Fedorska

The Polish journalist Karolina Baca-Pogorzelska is an expert on the embattled Donbass region.

In the IPPEN.MEDIA interview, she looks at the situation on the ground - and criticizes the West.

Berlin – Fierce fighting is raging in the Donbass.

According to Ukrainian information, Russia is to target residential areas with heavy artillery during the Ukraine war.

In the strategically important city of Sievjerodonetsk, Russian troops have captured the center.

The journalist Karolina Baca-Pogorzelska works for the Polish magazine

and knows the region.

She has written a book about mining in Donbass.

Baca-Pogorzelska has received several awards for her journalistic work and was nominated for the Grand Press Prize in Poland in 2020.

Most recently, she researched for the

editorial team for more than six weeks in Donbass.

In an interview with

from

, she talks about the tense situation on the ground and warns against the use of chemical weapons in the Ukraine conflict.

Cloud of smoke over Sievjerodonetsk: The Ukrainian city was recently fought over between Russian and Ukrainian troops.

© Aris Messinis/AFP

They just came back from Donbass.

You know the area very well from your research.

Now Donbass is the scene of dramatic fighting.

Please describe the Donbass and its importance as an industrial region.

Donbass is a diverse region.

There are rich deposits of raw materials there - not just the coal in the Donetsk Basin, which is the most talked about.

The area is rich in minerals such as salt.

Commitment has always paid off for investors.

Donbass is a region important for the development of the whole country.

That was already the case in Soviet times.

So you can say: Donbass is a gold mine.

The Russians know that too.

How has Donbass changed in recent years?

The Donbass has been exploited for decades.

An industrial decline cannot be overlooked, subsidies only hide it.

Local oligarchs are still very present - for example Rinat Akhmetov, the richest person in Ukraine, who owns the Azov steelworks.

Meanwhile they were destroyed by the Russians.

There are many other plants owned by Akhmetov in Mariupol.

At the latest, the referendum in Donbass organized by pro-Russian separatists in 2014 showed that you can get rich quickly here.

And just as quickly lose everything again.

Large parts of the infrastructure were destroyed by the fighting.

Is the region now threatened with economic decline?

The competitiveness of the Donbass has been suffering since the Russian offensive in 2014. It is quite possible that the end is imminent.

Let's take coal mining: the mines are in the hands of the separatists, they were exploited without any security measures or investments.

Presumably they will be flooded with water when abandoned.

Continued operation makes little financial sense, which Ukraine also had to admit.

So it is with all mining in the region.

There may be patriotic reasons for continuing to operate one or the other location - there is little to be said for it from an economic point of view.

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The consequences for the environment would be devastating.

For example, if hydrogen sulfide gets into the Sea of ​​Azov in large quantities, this body of water ceases to exist.

It would be the ecological end.

Karolina Baca-Pogorzelska

And what about the chemical industry?

Here, too, productivity is declining.

There is simply a lack of investment.

This always leads to incidents.

Of course, the Russians know where the relevant factories are and what they produce.

It's no secret.

The temptation on their part is great to destroy these establishments.

The consequences for the environment would be devastating.

For example, if hydrogen sulfide gets into the Sea of ​​Azov in large quantities, this body of water ceases to exist.

It would be the ecological end.

The region is already suffering from years of industrial production that has had little regard for the environment.

Exactly, the soils are already largely contaminated today.

It could get worse.

Farming in the region would then be unthinkable.

The risk of chemical contamination is real.

A few days ago in Donetsk, a cistern with nitric acid was hit, creating a huge cloud of smoke.

What does that mean for the groundwater, for the drinking water supply?

We do not know it.

Some rivers in the region are already striking because of their reddish colour.

Nobody has investigated whether this is a chemical contamination.

The Donbass is threatened by the lack of drinking water, this is not a science fiction scenario.

The fiercer the fighting and the longer it lasts, the more difficult it becomes to eliminate the consequences - it could even be too late.

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Is environmental destruction a deliberate tool of Russian warfare?

Definitely yes.

The Russians know that the use of classic chemical weapons would result in American retaliation.

If Russia were to use weapons of mass destruction, a red line would be crossed - that's what US President Joe Biden said and I assume he would keep his word.

So Russia is taking a different approach: They are destroying the infrastructure, attacking sensitive points - and making the region uninhabitable.

The effect is the same as using chemical weapons.

Maybe not right away, but it will happen.

The effect would be comparable to that of Chernobyl: Even with the nuclear power plant accident, many people died days, weeks or even years later.

Cancer and a shorter life expectancy are also a threat in the Donbass.

This war is devastating.

(Aleksandra Fedorska)