Russia is suspected of deliberately leaking chemical waste into a river, with deadly consequences for wildlife
Serhiy Kraskov picked up a twig and poked at a small fish floating in the Desna River. “It’s a roach. It died recently. You can tell because its eyes are clear and not blurry,” he said. Hundreds of other fish had washed up nearby on the river’s green willow-fringed banks. A large pike lay in the mud. Nearby, in a patch of yellow lilies, was a motionless carp. “Everything is dead, starting from the tiniest minnow to the biggest catfish,” Kraskov added mournfully.
Kraskov is the mayor of the village of Slabyn, in Ukraine’s northern Chernihiv region. The rustic settlement – population 520 – escaped the worst of Russia’s 2022 full-scale invasion. But the war arrived last week in a new and horrible form. Ukrainian officials say the Russians deliberately poisoned the Seym River, which flows into the Desna. The Desna connects with a reservoir in the Kyiv region and a water supply used by millions.
He just wants mineral rights
He wants the land to control food sources for the EU and parts of Asia.
Food, water and shelter – the three things humans need to survive, and the three things rich assholes have decided to corner the market on.
This is about a lot more than minerals and resources, and while you can’t extricate those motivations from the larger rational, first and foremost this war was about regime security, or at least Putin’s perception on the issue.
And then when it hit a brick wall almost immediately, it really increased Putin’s concerns about his regime security.