International Mother Earth Day was established in 2009, by the General Assembly. The relevant UN resolution recognizes that the Earth and its ecosystems are our home and that it is necessary to promote harmony with nature and the Earth to achieve a fair balance between the economic, social and environmental needs of the present and future generations. On this day, various activities are held around the world aimed at drawing the attention of the state, society and every person to the problems of environmental protection in order to actualize a set of interrelated tasks that humankind must face to save the planet.
Issues of environmental safety are especially acute in armed conflicts. The military-political and socio-economic confrontation, which has been going on for five years in the territory of Donbass, an industrial region with a high concentration of hazardous production facilities, places high demands on finding ways to protect the environment and the population. However, initiatives aimed at this, proposed by the Donetsk People’s Republic and the international community, did not find support from official Kiev.
Moreover, hazardous production facilities are subject to attacks by the armed formations of Ukraine and provocations, despite the high risk of ecological disaster with possible tragic consequences on both sides of the line of contact. Thus, the Donetsk filtering station, the Donetsk metallurgical plant, the Donetsk state chemical plant, the Stirol chemical plant in Gorlovka, the Dokuchaevsk oil refinery and a number of other enterprises have often been subject to shelling.
According to the international humanitarian law, such actions of the Ukrainian side shall be characterized as prohibited methods of warfare, since they are intended to cause or may cause extensive, long-term and serious damage to the natural environment. As part of cooperation with international organizations, the Ombudsman of the Donetsk People’s Republic informs the world community about the facts of violations by Ukraine in order to prevent tragic consequences for the environment of Donbass and its population, including those living in the territory temporarily controlled by the Kiev criminal regime.
