Russia is suspected of deliberately leaking chemical waste into a river, with deadly consequences for wildlife

Russia is suspected of deliberately leaking chemical waste into a river, with deadly consequences for wildlife

Serhiy Kraskov picked up a twig and poked at a small fish floating in the Desna River. “It’s a roach. It died recently. You can tell because its eyes are clear and not blurry,” he said. Hundreds of other fish had washed up nearby on the river’s green willow-fringed banks. A large pike lay in the mud. Nearby, in a patch of yellow lilies, was a motionless carp. “Everything is dead, starting from the tiniest minnow to the biggest catfish,” Kraskov added mournfully.

Kraskov is the mayor of the village of Slabyn, in Ukraine’s northern Chernihiv region. The rustic settlement – population 520 – escaped the worst of Russia’s 2022 full-scale invasion. But the war arrived last week in a new and horrible form. Ukrainian officials say the Russians deliberately poisoned the Seym River, which flows into the Desna. The Desna connects with a reservoir in the Kyiv region and a water supply used by millions.

  • Bo7aEnglish
    41·
    51 minutes ago

    News report - Date unknown

    In the early days of the war the Russian regime made regular threats to use nuclear weaponry, but most experts and lay-people believed that even that brutally sadistic despot would not go the extreme of destroying the earth to achieve his goals.

    By 2024 Russia was doing small-scale ecocide in hopes of lending credence to their threats. Looking back, the poisoning of an entire riparian ecosystem connected to the Desna River in what was Ukraine should have been a clear signal of what was to come. But nobody listened and the nuclear weapons flew.

    I am not making a joke here. This is where my brain naturally went when reading this. Let’s just hope my invasive thoughts are wrong.

    [Edit: I am also not saying to appease this fucking psycho either. This is just a snippet of thought that I felt the urge to share.]

  • YeetPics@mander.xyzEnglish
    7·
    4 hours ago

    Inb4 tankies explain that Russia was just helping the aquatic life mutate faster to help them survive the coming nuclear annihilation Putin has on order and how it’s a good thing.

  • Cyrus Draegur@lemm.eeEnglish
    461·
    9 hours ago

    Jesus fucking christ literal real life Kefka Palazzo shit going on. Even the cartoonishly evil villains of 90s era video games are eclipsed by the outrageous fuckery of the heinous clowns you find in real life.

  • MehBlah@lemmy.worldEnglish
    51·
    6 hours ago

    You can’t set the bar too low for trash like putin and his sycophants.

  • Flying Squid@lemmy.worldMEnglish
    552·
    12 hours ago

    I think Putin needs to decide whether or not he wants to take Ukraine or destroy Ukraine.

    • einkorn@feddit.orgEnglish
      531·
      11 hours ago

      Putin will burn everything down as long as he can be the king of the ashes.

    • Red_October@lemmy.worldEnglish
      211·
      11 hours ago

      It seems pretty clear that if he can’t have it, he’ll do his best to make sure nobody else can either.

    • Zoldyck@lemmy.worldEnglish
      142·
      11 hours ago

      When Russia can’t have something, they try to destroy it. Typical Russian culture.

    • NomecksEnglish
      62·
      8 hours ago

      He just wants mineral rights

      • girlfreddyEnglish
        61·
        8 hours ago

        He wants the land to control food sources for the EU and parts of Asia.

        Food, water and shelter – the three things humans need to survive, and the three things rich assholes have decided to corner the market on.

      • pandapoo@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
        13·
        7 hours ago

        This is about a lot more than minerals and resources, and while you can’t extricate those motivations from the larger rational, first and foremost this war was about regime security, or at least Putin’s perception on the issue.

        And then when it hit a brick wall almost immediately, it really increased Putin’s concerns about his regime security.

    • Cyrus Draegur@lemm.eeEnglish
      101·
      9 hours ago

      HAS THE BETRAYING OF GENERAL LEO AND THE MASSACRE OF DOMA TAUGHT US NOTHING

      The returners should have never agreed to “peace talks” in Vector; they should have burnt it to the fucking ground when they had a chance.