In recent months, Serbia has witnessed an alarming crackdown on its civic space. This has unfolded through a wave of arrests, smear campaigns, and repressive tactics aimed at silencing dissent and undermining democratic principles. These actions, exacerbated by growing Russian and Chinese influence, reveal a systematic effort of Serbia’s authorities to suppress civil society and stifle public dissent.

Russia’s war in eastern Ukraine has dramatically impacted the areas that used to make up the coal mining industry. Since 2014 most of the mines on the territories of Donbas not controlled by Ukraine have been closed down and many of them subsequently began to flood. If the coal region remains in a state of uncontrolled flooding over the next five to twelve years, then two-thirds of the territory of Donbas will become uninhabitable for normal life.

Despite Russia's full-scale invasion, the Ukrainian government remains committed to its pledge to phase out coal after 2035, the former deputy energy minister, Yaroslav Demchenkov, said in the summer of 2023. By 2021, Ukraine, as well as the country's largest energy company, DTEK, had already joined the Powering Past Coal Alliance (PPCA), an initiative aimed at a phased transition to carbon-free energetics. In addition, during the COP28 climate summit, German Galushchenko, the energy minister, also announced plans to create a “de-carbonized mix of Ukraine's energy system” from renewable energy and nuclear power.

The Ukraine War Environmental Consequences Work Group came together in the wake of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The group brings together experts and journalists from around the world focused on the situation in the region. Their goals are to raise awareness about the war’s environmental damage, lay the groundwork for a sustainable reconstruction of war-torn Ukraine, and prevent the war from being used as an excuse to put climate issues on the back-burner.

On a wintry Thursday in Berlin, journalist Angelina Davydova is in her home in an online meeting with a group of environmental advocates from three continents. They have organised a unique kind of editorial board meeting. Separated by oceans and time zones stretching sixteen hours, pulled away from their personal and work lives by the war and, often, amidst blackouts and air raids, the group has come together to brainstorm the next “issue” of their Ukraine War Environmental Consequences (UWEC) Work Group.

The war in Ukraine has brought attention to many pressing humanitarian issues in the country. Despite this, the conflict’s effects on the environment have not been discussed at length. Russia’s actions in Ukraine could well set a legal precedent for “ecocide” in international law.

Episode 32 of the Talk Eastern Europe podcast takes a snapshot of how some countries in Eastern Europe are trying to slow the effects of climate change in the region.