On April 22, OHCHR (The United Nations Human Rights Office) reported the number of civilian casualties in the Ukraine as killed: 2,435 and as injured: 2,946. However, Ukraine officials very recently strongly suggest the more accurate figure as 15,000 dead. The nation’s president, Volodymyr Zelensky, said weeks of bombardment in the city of Mariupol alone had killed “tens of thousands.” While these estimates vary widely, there is no doubt that both in the general civilian population and in the military, huge numbers of Ukrainian citizens are dying and suffering wounds for their country. In addition, 4.1 million refugees have fled their beloved country as of the war’s beginning date, February 24, 2022.
THE WEEK’s magazine’s managing editor adds “We already knew some of the horror of the war in Ukraine – children buried in the ruins of their shelter, a city without water – ‘green corridors’ turned into shooting galleries.” News medias have also been informing us of a multitude of other heinous acts committed by the aggressor nation, Russia, against the Ukrainians throughout this present two-and-a-half-month-long siege. Local farm fields have now been abandoned. Consequently, with no crop, farmers have been unable to ship cereal wheat and fertilizer, not only to their own people but to vast outside areas of the globe. Wall Street Journal (WSJ) informs us that the consequent huge food shortages could result in the number of world malnourished people increasing by 13 million from the year, 2020.
WSJ, in the above earlier edition, also states “Ukrainians who have been trapped or displaced by fighting are running short of medicines to treat chronic diseases and injuries.” Many people are experiencing psychological and emotional trauma through their separations of family members (mothers/wives, sometimes from their children and often from their soldier-mandated husbands, as well as from lost pets). In addition, the constant noise bombardment of war weaponry provides non-stop mental trauma. And, of course, the physical risks of outbreaks of Covid-19, measles, and other infectious diseases and the interrupted polio-vaccination, tuberculosis, and HIV programs have caused, according to the World Health Organization, “the worst possible ingredients for the amplification and spread of infectious disease.” Voluntary health care emergency treatments and aid groups are growing in existence to arrange evacuations and deliver food and medical supplies where possible in the Ukraine and in surrounding countries (largely in Poland), though these efforts can be limited by fighting (attacks on health facilities, medical workers, and ambulances) and by financial constraints.
The International Organization for Migration (IOM) Storyteller site explains that the country’s massive environmental/ecological damage is already having a tremendous impact on the health of Ukrainians. Attacks against industrial sites, energy plants (coal mines), water stations, gas pipelines, and unique natural resources have resulted in the country’s government qualifying these as “crimes against the environment.” The damage of about 4,000 units of various military equipment has led to the “accumulation of carcinogenic (cancer-causing) waste as split fuel from exploded missiles contaminates the soil and groundwater with chemicals and heavy metals.” In addition, wildfires in the Chernobyl exclusion zone have threatened wildlife and produced the ability to spread nuclear waste into the atmosphere.
Residents in many cities, towns, and villages have already felt the war’s effects of polluting their air, water, and soil. With some of the heaviest fighting taking place around the capital city of Kyiv, the air quality there recently plummeted with a pollutant concentration in the air 217.8 times higher than normal. Adding to this lung danger is the problem of heavily bombed buildings producing fine dust particles which are mixed also with heavy metals and other toxic substances. The IOM Storyteller mentions “This carcinogenic dust may cause longer-term health threats with effects that may not present themselves for years or even decades after the war ends.”
In the short-term, Ukrainians staying in areas with intense hostilities, may see an increase in asthma, pneumonia, and acute bronchitis. According to IOM, the long-term health effects for those exposed to dangerous chemicals “may include cancer, organ damage, and weakening of the immune system, which may take months or years to appear. Taking into account these environmental issues, public health risks and food insecurity will be critical for Ukrainians deciding whether or not to return home.” For those Sun City residents wishing to financially help our Ukrainian friends, Doctors without Borders and International Fellowship of Christians and Jews are two charitable organizations highly recommended.
