��������

Anna Kuzemko is a Ukrainian botanist and environmentalist, Doctor of Biological Sciences, and leading researcher at the Institute of Botany of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine. She co-founded the NGO Ukrainian Nature Conservation Group and serves as vice-president of the Ukrainian Botanical Society. Her research focuses on vegetation and natural habitats of Ukraine and Europe, with recent studies addressing the ecological impact of military activities on ecosystems during the Russo-Ukrainian war.

“When assessing the environmental consequences of war, it is essential to consider both the nature and scale of the impacts, as well as the capacity of affected ecosystems to recover. My presentation will address scientific criteria for defining ecocide and illustrate them through case studies. These include the story of a lichen newly documented in 2021, an endemic newt species, and unique natural ecosystems of pan-European importance, e.g., steppe depressions and pine forests on chalk outcrops.”

Darya Tsymbalyuk is an assistant professor in the Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures and at CEGU (Committee on Environment, Geography, and Urbanization), University of Chicago. She is the author of Ecocide in Ukraine: the Environmental Cost of Russia’s War (2025). Together with Tanya Richardson, Tsymbalyuk co-edited a double special issue on the environmental humanities of Ukraine, forthcoming in CIUS’s East/West: Journal of Ukrainian Studies. The issue includes an article, “Constellations of Ukrainian thought and the environmental humanities,” in which Tsymbalyuk and Richardson trace the development of environmental thought in Ukraine in the 20th century and to the present day. 

“In this presentation, I will share insights from my new book Ecocide in Ukraine. Examining the study of ecocide, I will discuss the important perspective provided by the field of environmental humanities provide and the kinds of culturally valuable academic and artistic storytelling that it offers. I will consider what kind of relationships exist between cultural narratives and law, and describe forms of environmental justice that are pursued in and beyond the courtroom.”

Anna Olenenko is a PhD Candidate in Media and Cultural Studies at the �������� and a research assistant at the Kule Folklore Centre in its Faculty of Arts. Anna is a co-founder of the EnvHistUA Research Group, where she serves as the regional representative for Ukraine and chair of the Council of Regional Representatives; she is also a board member of the European Society for Environmental History. Anna’s research interests include the environmental history of Ukraine, particularly the Steppe region, animal studies, and oral history. 

“The rapid and destructive impact of the Russo-Ukrainian war has brought environmental devastation into sharp relief. In response, ecocide has emerged as a widely used term in both media and academic discussions, particularly in reference to the case of the Kakhovka Dam. My talk will examine why ecocide has gained such prominence within the humanities, and will consider the heightened attention to environmental destruction in Ukraine brought by the war.”

About the Moderator:

Julia Malitska (PhD, History), is a senior researcher at Södertörn University, Stockholm (Sweden), which published her doctoral dissertation as the monograph Negotiating Imperial Rule: Colonists and Marriage in the Nineteenth-Century Black Sea Steppe (2017). In 2019–2022, Malitska conducted a post-doctoral project on the history of vegetarian social activism in the late Russian empire, with journal articles published, including in Media History and Global Food History. She is a co-editor of Consumption and Advertising in Eastern Europe and Russia in the Twentieth Century (2023). Malitska’s current project, titled “To eat or not to eat: Human health, scientific knowledge, and the biopolitics of meat in Eastern Europe in 1860s–1939,” deals with the intertwined histories of food, scientific knowledge, and animals in the late Romanov empire and early Soviet Union.

This seminar is part of the international series “Rethinking Ukraine’s Environment: War, Ecocide, and Beyond,” which aims to foster a deeper understanding of historical human–environment relationships—a vital factor in addressing Ukraine’s current environmental challenges and envisioning a secure and sustainable future.

Read more about the seminar series here.