ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT ASSESMENT: THE ANALYSIS OF THE CHALLENGES CAUSED BY MARTIAL LAW
Authors: Barna Iryna 
Published: August 2023

With the beginning of full-scale Russian aggression, social relations in our country underwent significant changes. This was caused by the destruction of social and industrial infrastructure, critical infrastructure facilities, and the established everyday life of the citizens. The Ukrainian state and its citizens faced unprecedented challenges. However, the unshakable desire of Ukrainians to withstand everything requires the state power as a tool for regulating societal relations, prompt decision-making and finding ways to overcome these challenges. Ukrainians had to respond to the threats and challenges caused by the war in various fields, including within the competence of the Ministry of Environmental Protection and Natural Resources of Ukraine, in particular, in the area of environmental impact assessment.

Environmental impact assessment (EIA) is a mechanism for ensuring eco-safety, which aims to prevent the establishment of environmentally hazardous economic objects by analyzing the project documentation of the planned activity. The EIA procedure involves a certain level of phasing, which is ensured by the use of the Unified Register of Environmental Impact Assessment automated information system. This system, in turn, enables the interaction of concerned members of the public, state authorities and business entities in a digital format. With the military operations and the intentional destruction of Ukrainian energy infrastructure objects by the aggressor, the execution of EIA proved to be an extremely difficult task. The complexity of carrying out the EIA is also caused by the need to act within the limits of the Ukrainian law on Environmental Impact Assessment. Therefore, it is relevant to analyze the steps taken by the relevant ministry to comply with the legislation, the principles of the implementation of the EIA, and the realization of the citizens' right to access information about the natural environment.

The environmental impact assessment procedure stipulated by Ukrainian law on environmental impact assessment is a tool that allows the public, state authorities, local government bodies and business entities to jointly make decisions that would meet the conceptual principles of sustainable development by preventing the implementation of ecologically unacceptable and environmentally harmful projects. The practical significance of the environmental impact assessment is determined by the full consideration of the consequences for the environment and human well-being from the planned activity and the development of measures aimed at preventing and eliminating a significant negative impact on the environment. Moreover, the Russian military actions are accompanied by numerous environmental crimes and environmental losses, caused by the destruction of landscapes, air pollution, soil degradation, and pollution of water bodies. Therefore, even under the conditions of martial law, the execution of an EIA should take place properly, taking into account the need to secure data that appears during the procedure and compliance with the basic principles of publicity, transparency and state regulation. All three of these principles, since the beginning of the full-scale aggression, were partially violated for objective reasons. Despite this, the real work of the Ministry of Environmental Protection and Natural Resources, whose experts have established the operation of the Unified Register for Environmental Impact Assessment automated information system, which made the implementation of the Environmental Impact Assessment possible, remains worthy of recognition. It remains fundamentally important for citizens to exercise their right to access environmental information when making decisions regarding the implementation of planned activities, which was not possible for several months after the beginning of the war. It was possible to partially overcome this problem by opening the Unified Register for Environmental Impact Assessment. The proposed research results specify the aspects of environmental impact assessment under martial law conditions, which is especially relevant for specialists, business entities, and concerned members of the public, considering the environmental threats provoked by military actions.

Key words: environmental impact assessment, planned activity, subject of management, public discussion, martial law.