Damage to the Maritime Ecosystems from the Destruction of the Kakhovka Dam and International Mechanisms of its Assessment

• Pages: 17-26

LEX PORTUS VOL 9 ISS 5 2023

ISSN 2524-101X

eISSN 2617-541X

DOI 10.26886/2524-101X.9.5.2023.2

Damage to the Maritime Ecosystems from

the Destruction of the Kakhovka Dam and

International Mechanisms of its Assessment

Borys Babin*, Oleksii Plotnikov**, Anna Prykhodko***

*Dr.Hab in Law, Prof. Professor of International and Comparative Law Department of National Aviation University (1, Liubomyra Huzara avenue, Kyiv,

Ukraine) https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9317-3845

**PhD in Law, expert of Association of Reintegration of Crimea (56, Kharkivske highroad, Kyiv, Ukraine) https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9814-1108

***PhD in Law, expert of Association of Reintegration of Crimea (56, Kharkivske highroad, Kyiv, Ukraine) https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4895-8520

ABSTRACT

The article focuses on possible mechanisms of international legal responsibility for the

destruction of the dam of the Kak hovka Hydroelectric Power Plant that happened in 2023

during the Russian aggression of Ukraine, Russian occupation, and attempted annexation of

the Kherson Region. The authors described the realization norms of international humanitarian,

criminal, maritime, ecological, and human rights law in the current reality of Ukraine and other

Black Sea states. The article describes the relevant demands of Regulations concerning the

Laws and Customs of War on Land as annex to the Hague Convention (IV), Rome Statute and

Geneva Conventions, Elements of Crime of International Criminal Court, UN Convention of the

Law of the Sea and relevant ecologic conventions, activities of Ukrainian legal enforcement

bodies and human rights defenders, also as ecocide crime conception. Authors stress the role

of OSCE Parliamentary Assembly Vancouver Declaration, 2023, of PACE Resolution “Political

consequences of the Russian Federation’s war of aggression against Ukraine” 2506 (2023),

of European Parliament Resolution “On the Sustainable Reconstruction and Integration of

Ukraine into the Euro-Atlantic Community,” 2023/2739 (RSP) and International Crimea Platform

activities. The relevant ecologic and maritime legal procedures might not necessarily result in

international cour ts and that the absence of international criminal responsibility for ecocide

makes natural perspectives for relevant responsibility just in the framework of relevant war crime

pointed out in Article 8(2)(b)(iv) of Rome Statute or on a national legal level. At the same time,

a set of international bodies’ resolutions adopted mentioned the Kakhovka case. It connected it

with ecocide, an international crime that shall make a relevant impulse for developing relevant

international legal concepts at a minimum on a doctrinal level.

CITATION

Babin, B., Plotnikov, O., &

Prykhodko, A. (2023). Damage to

the Maritime Ecosystems from the

Destruction of the Kakhovka Dam

and International Mechanisms of

its Assessment. Lex Portus, 9(5),

23–32.

https://doi.org/10.26886/2524-

101X.9.5.2023.2

KEYWORDS

crimes against the environment,

Dnipro River, ecocide, international

justice, Kakhovka dam, Rome

Statute, Russian aggression,

maritime ecosystems, war crimes

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International License

Introduction

The 2008 UN Secretar y-General’s Report on the Oceans and the Law of the Sea only

incidentally mentions armed conicts as a threat to maritime security. Events like the

intentional conict-related destruction of a major dam, entailing the discharge of cubic

kilometers of polluted water into an enclosed sea basin, seemed highly improbable. However,

this is now a reality that Ukraine and other Black Sea states face. The collapse of the Kak hovka

dam on the river Dnipro, which was caused by activities of Russian troops (Association of

Reintegration of Crimea, 2023f), resulted in catastrophic ooding of a densely populated area,

massive pollution of the Black Sea with industrial and agricultural waste, as well as change of

its salinity due to vast volumes of freshwater (Ustun & Aydin, 2023). I t is worth noting that the

environment in the northern part of the Black Sea has already been negatively impacted by

the Russian occupation of Crimea since 2014, including signicant pollution due to occupiers’

uncontrolled activities (Babin et al., 2021; Radulescu, 2023). The situation further aggregated