Ukraine: Birds as victims and symbols of the environmental catastrophe of the war

Viktor Sevidov tends his ear, raises his eyes and recognizes each bird in the sky of Ukraine. "There's a jay"; "That's a mirror-billed bluethroat"; "Do you see the Montagu's harrier? We're lucky."

On green hills and near a pond, this wildlife photographer evokes the environmental catastrophe caused by the Russian invasion, while appreciating the small joys that remain, during a simple walk in nature. At dawn or dusk, Viktor Sevidov, 37, escapes his gray building on the outskirts of Kryvyi Rig, an industrial city in central Ukraine, and goes to meet the birds.

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Considered one of the fastest declining species in the global biodiversity crisis, they play a vital role in pollination, seed dispersal, and controlling insect proliferation.

"I want to see a clear sky"

Already threatened in peacetime by deforestation, intensive agriculture, urbanization, pollution, hunting, and climate change, they also suffer in Ukraine from a war extending over 1,200 km of front, devastating millions of hectares and marked by a permanent battle in the air.

Before 2022, in the Zaporijjia and Kherson regions, photographer Viktor Sevidov worked in areas that are now "destroyed" because they are on the front line or "unreachable" because they are in territory occupied by the Russians.

He lives far from the fighting, but his region, like others, is regularly bombed, resulting in victims among humans and animals. One day, in 2024, a Russian missile was shot down above him while he was taking photos in the southern region of Odessa. Mr. Sevidov also sees enemy drones "daily" which he never photographs.

"For me, it's repulsive, I don't want to see that (...). I love nature, I love life, not these things that bring death. I want to see a clear sky."

Read also A vulture species in great danger can no longer access a "crucial migration corridor" due to bombings

Philopatry would be an innate behavior of birds

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Zoologist Ewa Wegrzyn, from the Polish University of Rzeszów, explains that, contrary to the common belief that birds flee easily, some species are attached to their nesting sites and migratory routes.

During wars, this "philopatry" can be "fatal": "This behavior is innate, so it is very difficult to change, even in the face of danger." According to Ms. Wegrzyn, the consequences of conflicts on birds are "under-documented," and the impossibility of conducting studies in combat or occupied zones in Ukraine prevents an assessment of the scale of losses.

At the end of April, AFP visited a bird refuge in Voropaiv, near Kyiv. More than 200 specimens are housed there, including dozens of war wounded. According to Iryna Snopko, the director of the place, birds "very often" injure their wings on the kilometers of drone optical cables that pollute the front line and in the anti-drone nets deployed on the roads.

Ms. Snopko, 63, walks past a blind swan, an eagle with an amputated wing, and a stork that suffered a concussion during an air attack. Recently, she paid for the care of an owl burned in the explosion of a drone against a tree. The animal did not survive.

Since 2022, her refuge has welcomed hundreds of birds. Iryna Snopko tenderly recounts the love stories that were born there between her storks and introduces a surprising female crow, Varia, who can pronounce her name: "Vouaaria!" she croaks, like a drunken old man.

Read also How to explain the phenomenon of "fire-starting birds"?

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The eagle-owl in the middle of the battlefield

Back to the walk with Viktor Sevidov. He says he stopped photography for two years after the start of the massive invasion; he didn't want to continue this "hobby" while many of his friends went to war.

Then, his loved ones convinced him to resume. His beautiful bird photographs are frequently found in local media, interspersed with images of fires, explosions, and announcements of the deaths of civilians or soldiers.

He himself would have liked to join the army but was medically discharged: his left arm has a disability since birth. In 2022, his best friend, another bird lover, joined the front. It was there that he saw for the first time, in the wild, a great eagle-owl, a nocturnal bird of prey, the largest bird living in Ukraine.

In a park in Dnipro, AFP meets this thin man with a white beard. Viatcheslav Kaïstro, 58, is a former combatant from the 128th Mechanized Brigade. In a calm voice, he confirms the "pure and simple" annihilation of "biotopes" on the front line, speaks of the many animals he saw "traumatized" and "understanding nothing anymore," like "addicts" amidst corpses.

One night in 2023, during an offensive near Vougledar, he did see a great eagle-owl. "It was a bad omen," he continues, before pausing and fixing his blue gaze. That same night, after encountering this rare and majestic bird, Viatcheslav Kaïstro lost his right leg by stepping on a mine.