October 31 marks International Black Sea Day — a date rooted not in social media trends, but in a real international commitment. In 1996, the environment ministers of Ukraine, Bulgaria, Georgia, Romania, Türkiye, and even Russia agreed on joint actions to restore and protect the sea. The idea was simple: preserve biodiversity and prevent the Black Sea from turning into a dumping ground or a military testing site.

However, despite its own signature, since 2014 Russia has turned the Black Sea into a zone of systematic ecological warfare. Mined waterways, sunken vessels filled with fuel and ammunition, toxic remnants of explosions and industrial leaks, acoustic terror from sonars, and mass deaths of marine mammals — this is the Russian reality.

The destruction of the Kakhovka Hydroelectric Power Plant in 2023 sent a wave of freshwater carrying waste, heavy metals, and cyanobacteria into the sea. In the winter of 2024, a fuel oil spill in the Kerch Strait struck the benthic ecosystem and embedded carcinogens into the food chain. The same destructive logic lies behind the illegal construction of the “Kerch Bridge,” which disrupted natural currents, caused seabed sedimentation, destroyed spawning grounds, degraded bottom habitats, and obstructed the migration of marine mammals.

Russia is flagrantly violating the Bucharest Convention on the Protection of the Black Sea, the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, and the norms of international humanitarian law, which explicitly prohibit large-scale, long-term, and severe environmental damage.

Ukraine consistently keeps the Black Sea issue on the international agenda — from publicly condemning attacks on civilian shipping to restoring freedom of navigation, returning the sea to its role as a space of peace, trade, and development, and ensuring Russia’s accountability. This accountability must come through sanctions for ecoterrorism, international monitoring, and a compensation fund financed by the aggressor’s frozen assets.

International Black Sea Day is a reminder that the sea is part of our security, economy, and life. We have already proven that the Black Sea can be reclaimed from fear and blackmail — now it must be returned to nature and people.