8 | New Scientist | 5 March 2022
SpaceRUSSIA’S invasion of Ukraine is
having knock-on effects on space
activities, with major uncertainties
around an upcoming European Mars
rover and the launch of satellites
for UK company OneWeb, which is
part-owned by the UK government.
One of the leading questions
so far has been whether Russia’s
partnership with NASA on the
International Space Station (ISS)
can continue. NASA has so far
said that the ISS won’t be affected,despite heavy sanctions for
Russia from nations across the
world. “The new export control
measures will continue to allow
US-Russia civil space cooperation,”
it said in a statement. “No changes
are planned to the agency’s support
for ongoing in orbit and ground
station operations.”
Russia’s previous invasions
of Crimea in 2014 and Georgia in
2008 didn’t result in a change to ISS
operations, though on 24 February,Dmitry Rogozin, head of the Russian
space agency Rosocosmos, tweeted
a warning that US sanctions
against Russia could “destroy”
cooperation over the ISS.
There is much more uncertainty
for European space projects. On
26 February, Rogozin announced
that Russia would recall staff and
no longer launch Soyuz rockets from
the European Space Agency’s (ESA)
spaceport in French Guiana, probablydelaying two Galileo navigation
satellites, due to launch in April, and
possibly the Euclid space telescope,
set to blast off in February 2023.
Russia also launches European
missions from its Baikonur spaceport
in Kazakhstan, where ESA’s flagship
Rosalind Franklin rover, part of the
ExoMars programme, is due to take
off in September in search of life on
the Red Planet. On 28 February, ESA
announced that “the sanctions and
the wider context make a launch
in 2022 very unlikely”, but it has
yet to make a final decision.
“Russia would get a lot of
credibility from being involvedEuropean Mars rover may be
delayed by Russian sanctions
“Russia would get a lot
of credibility from being
involved in a European
Mars mission”AID agencies have warned of
a humanitarian emergency
following Russia’s invasion of
Ukraine, with death and disease
likely to result from a loss of health
services and the mass migration
of refugees, in addition to direct
loss of life from military attacks.
More than half a million people
have fled Ukraine and many are
on the move within the country.
The United Nations has said if
the war escalates, up to 4 million
Ukrainians, about a tenth of
the population, may become
refugees. “We’re seeing significant
displacement,” says a spokesperson
for the International Committee
of the Red Cross (ICRC). “This
brings increased levels of trauma,
suffering and family separation.”
Refugees and internally
displaced people tend to have
worse health due to crowded and
poor living conditions leading to
the spread of infectious diseases,
for instance.
Hospital care is being
jeopardised by a lack of power
and medical supplies, including
oxygen, demand for which has
been increased by the covid-pandemic. Like most countries
in Europe, Ukraine is currently
on the downward slope of a recent
high spike of covid-19 cases caused
by the omicron variant, with
about 1700 people thought to be
in hospital because of the disease.
The World Health Organization
said on 27 February that most
hospitals were likely to use up
their oxygen supplies withinthe next 24 hours, with some
having already run out. Trucks are
unable to move oxygen supplies
from manufacturing plants to
hospitals across the country.
Several oxygen manufacturers
face shortages of the mineral
zeolite, needed for its production,
which is mainly imported.
In the Donetsk region in the
east, a million people are currently
without access to clean water
because two major water pumping
stations have been affected by the
attack, says the ICRC. The charityhas been supplying clean water
to Dokuchaevsk hospital and
municipal authorities. “Where
clean water is lacking, infectious
diseases and health problems are
never far behind,” says the ICRC
spokesperson. “It is vital that
civilian infrastructure must
not be targeted.”
The invasion will also
disrupt normal public health
programmes. In January, Ukraine
launched a national campaign to
boost uptake of the polio vaccine
in children, after 20 cases were
discovered last year in the city of
Rivne and the Zakarpattia region
in the west. Médecins Sans
Frontières has also had to stop
several public health programmes
it was running in the country,
including ones to combat HIV
and tuberculosis, alongside basic
healthcare provision.
On 27 February, Ukraine’s
Ministry of Health asked doctors
and healthcare staff from other
countries to come to Ukraine to
help. “There is an urgent need for
health care workforce to help both
along the front and in the rear,”
the ministry said in a statement. ❚HealthAY
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ESHumanitarian crisis in Ukraine
People in Ukraine face a loss of healthcare and clean water that could cause a rise in
infectious disease, reports Clare Wilson, with some hospitals already out of oxygenOkhmatdyt children’s
hospital in Kyiv during
Russian attacksNews focus Ukraine invasion