The environmental impacts of the Russia-Ukraine war: Challenging anthropocentric approaches to transitional justice

The environmental impacts of the Russia-Ukraine war have generated considerable attention, and legal and policy developments occurring both within Ukraine and at the international level can contribute to a new justice architecture that addresses the traditional neglect of more-than-human worlds in transitional justice processes. While acknowledging the importance of these developments, this interdisciplinary article argues that they do not go far enough because they frame more-than-human worlds solely as victims and neglect their agency. Using the Russia-Ukraine war as a case study and drawing on original empirical data, this article introduces three ideas for developing transitional justice that are attentive to more-than-human worlds in the sense of respecting their agency. The first is acknowledging some of the ways that they have ‘helped’ in the war. The second is paying attention to how they are responding to the harms they have suffered. The third is listening to them.