In a previous blog post, last May, I shared a map showing Ukraine’s agricultural land.  With the shocking news this week of the Russian destruction of the Kakhovka dam (while some sit on the fence in terms of culpability, the facts point to the Russians), we are left to wonder with horror what changes to the people, livestock, agriculture, and more have been wreaked and will continue to be wreaked.

The second largest of the six hydroelectric dams of the Dnipro river in Ukraine and the last of the six before it flows into the Black Sea, Nova Kakhovka was of huge importance.  Its destruction caused immediate death and destruction and the impact of what has happened will likely be felt for years.  In the awful setting of the Russian war against Ukraine, the stakes are of course even higher, with the dead and displaced already affected by war and with mines planted along the river now adding a terrible additional element of danger.

What material might be helpful for background reading?  The 2009 Ekolohichnyĭ atlas Ukraïny (Ecological atlas of Ukraine) packs 116 maps into its 104 pages and is one of two items in our catalogue with the Library of Congress subject heading Ecology–Ukraine.  The other is David Marples’ 1991 book 
Ukraine under perestroika : ecology, economics and the workers’ revolt.  In Library of Congress headings, the Dnipro takes the form ‘Dnieper’.  Under Dnipro River–Environmental conditions, we have the 2017 ebook Along Ukraine’s river : a social and environmental history of the Dnipro (Dnieper) by Roman Adrian Cybriwsky.  Do remember to look in the Map Room’s card catalogues for other atlases and maps, since many of their holdings are not yet on iDiscover.

The war also means that no international effort standard for a humanitarian and environmental crisis of this scale is under way.  If you are keen to help, you could write to your MP to ask them to challenge the government to commit to swift and meaningful assistance.  If you can spare money, the United24 fundraising initiative set up by the Ukrainian president has started a LIFEBOAT page specifically for this crisis: https://u24.gov.ua/lifeboat.  The historian Timothy Snyder lists this with 9 others in a Twitter string from yesterday.

Mel Bach