RESEARCHERS at the Royal Agricultural University are helping battle bomb damage in Ukraine. 

British and Ukrainian academics, working together at the RAU to look at ways in which they can identify levels of pollution in the farmland and soils as well as what they can do to fix the problem.

This is because in addition to the daily humanitarian damage caused by the weapons deployed in the Ukraine Russia conflict, the long-lasting pollution to the Ukrainian farmland, from contamination by heavy metals in the Russian bombs, could have devastating impact on human health long after the war has ended.

Yesterday, Thursday, December 14, academics shared their results with other scientists. 

Professor Nicola Cannon, Professor in Agriculture at the RAU, said: “Initially understanding the contamination helps to avoid spreading contaminated soil across a wider area which could have devastating effects for future productivity and food safety.

“The plan is to test bomb craters of different shapes and sizes left by weapons over the whole of Ukraine to evaluate them for contaminates and particularly for heavy metals which could have serious environmental consequences and devastating impacts on human health if transferred into the food chain.”

Academics and researchers at the RAU have been working with colleagues at Sumy National Agricultural University (SNAU) in Ukraine since the Russian invasion in March 2022.

One of their SNAU colleagues Associate Professor Olena Melnyk, who is now based at ETH Zurich, a public research university in Switzerland, is leading the project. 

A sampling protocol for evaluating the craters was developed by RAU staff and tested, with Ukrainian colleagues, on Salisbury Plain.

The soil samples are then analysed using specialist equipment from the RAU’s Cirencester campus. 

Olena said: “We are so grateful for all the support we are receiving.

"In conjunction with the RAU and The Conflict and Environment Observatory (CEOBS) we have been able to deliver a month-long training programme to teach trainers, in Ukraine itself, the protocols and skills required for sampling the craters and analysing the soil. 

“These trainers will in turn teach others to reach our ambition of sampling all the bomb craters to avoid further damage to our country.

"This will also help us to map the contaminated farmlands of Ukraine and develop a comprehensive strategy to revitalise Ukrainian agriculture and to build back better.”