Sounds of the Ukraine war: what these recordings of daily life reveal about the human and environmental costs

Detta inlägg post publicerades ursprungligen på denna sida this site ;

---

Date: 2025-04-09 12:29

Author: Rss error reading .

Original article: https://theconversation.com/sounds-of-the-ukraine-war-what-these-recordings-of-daily-life-reveal-about-the-human-and-environmental-costs-253390

---

A Kyiv resident describes it as her favourite morning sound. She is referring to the crisp, clear sound of a trumpet coming from a nearby street. The music is beautiful and soulful, played by a military veteran who sits in the same spot every weekend.

“I am inspired by this strong person who not only plays but also brings a ray of hope to the whole district with his music,” the interviewee reflects.

Existing research on war and sound has mainly focused on what J. Martin Daughtry, associate professor of ethnomusicology and sound studies at New York University, terms “the belliphonic” – meaning the spectrum of sounds produced by armed combat. Gunfire. Shellings. Explosions.

In reality, what people hear and remember as the sounds of war are often far more diverse. When I asked a group of Ukrainians to make recordings of their local soundscapes, they captured a wide range of different sounds including the belliphonic – in particular, the increasingly “normal” sound of air raid sirens.

Yet they were also much more varied than I had expected – a school run; a walk in a winter forest; stridulating crickets; silence during curfew (typically from midnight to 5am); generators on the street; an end-of-project celebration; a rollerskating club.

I also asked participants about their recordings, including how they felt when they listened back to them, as well as more general questions such as how their soundscapes had changed due to the war, and what sounds they missed. These recordings are featured in a recently launched online exhibit.

As I have learnt from my research over the past seven months, sound can offer different – and distinctive – insights into experiences of war. It can elicit thoughts and information that might not arise from conversations and interviews alone.

I had a particular reason for asking Ukrainians to make these soundscape recordings (more than 40 in total). Ecologists, bio-acousticians (scientists who study the creation, transmission and reception of sound) and others have used sound to analyse and monitor soil biodiversity, the healthiness of coral reefs and the impact of wildfires on birdsong.

This fascinating area of research, however, remains neglected in war and armed conflict contexts. In particular, studies examining the environmental impacts of war – including the war in Ukraine – have overlooked the relevance of sound in terms of what it might tell us about the impact of conflict.

In Ukraine, some of the areas that have suffered the greatest environmental damage are not accessible – or at least, not easily. They are saturated with landmines and other unexploded ordnance, occupied by Russian forces, or close to frontline areas.

My interviewees were not able to record the sounds of burning forests and steppes (grasslands); or of wild animals in Askania-Nova (Ukraine’s oldest nature reserve) fleeing in fear from low-flying enemy aircraft. All of the interviewees, moreover, were based in cities. Their recordings, however, illustrate some of the ways the war in Ukraine is affecting not just humans but the whole environment.

In one of the recordings, made at night in the city of Zaporizhzhia in south-east Ukraine, there is the sound of explosions as Ukraine’s air-defence system shoots down Shahed drones. Neighbourhood dogs can be heard barking throughout the entire recording.

In another recording, in the city of Dnipro in central Ukraine, dogs bark in response to the wailing sound of an air raid siren – and a large dog close-by lets out two prolonged howls.

It is impossible to listen to these recordings without thinking about the animals and what they were experiencing and feeling.

A zoologist shared with me a recording he made in 2013, a year before the start of the war in eastern Ukraine. The audio captures the chirping of a steppe marmot in Luhansk region. As the area is now under occupation, you might wonder when listening to it how the sounds of this steppe have changed as a consequence of the war.

Attentiveness to sound has wider implications for justice, and in particular for transitional justice (how societies respond to the legacies of massive and serious human rights violations) – my area of research.

Ukraine is investigating more than 200 cases of environmental war crimes which are alleged to have taken place during the current conflict. Of these, 14 are additionally being investigated as ecocide – a crime included in article 441 of Ukraine’s criminal code. One case relates to the destruction of the Kakhovka dam, in Kherson region, in June 2023.

These legal developments can significantly contribute to addressing the neglect of nature and the environment in transitional justice – a field that remains strongly focused on humans.

Sound is also highly relevant in this regard. As the barking dogs illustrate, it can powerfully capture ways that human and animal experiences of war are deeply entangled.

Using sound as a way of actively monitoring different ecosystems over a period of time can also provide valuable information about changes occurring within them. This is important for understanding how these ecosystems have been harmed and, additionally, how they might be recovering . Oleksii Marushchak, a researcher at the I.I. Schmalhausen Institute of Zoology in Kyiv, said after listening to the recordings:

It is important to reiterate that the majority of interviewees at the time of participating in the study were far from the frontline, where the horrors of war are much more intense than anything that you will hear in the soundscape recordings. One can only imagine what it must be like for people and animals living in close proximity to frontline areas.

Sound is relevant not just to criminal investigations but also the issue of environmental reparations. There now exists a Register of Damage for Ukraine, as the first step in creating an international compensation mechanism to deal with multiple damages – including to the environment – caused during the war. It would be a highly innovative, and welcome, development if this future mechanism were to admit soundscape ecology evidence.

There is also scope for Ukrainian prosecutors to further expand their pioneering work in investigating environmental war crimes and ecocide (which has wider relevance to the work of the International Criminal Court in The Hague) by listening to such recordings – and to the rich information that animals, forests, rivers and soil can help communicate through sound.

When the war ends, it will be essential to consider all the evidence of its many effects and consequences, and sound recordings could be very important.

Janine Natalya Clark receives funding from the Leverhulme Trust.