Air pollution (especially near industrial enterprises that are located mainly in densely populated regions) is one of the most significant problems of modern ecology. The purpose of this research is to study nitrogen dioxide air pollution over Ukraine, which has a negative impact on human health. As part of the research over the territory of Ukraine, the real planar distribution of nitrogen dioxide (NO2) as well as its local emissions (which make the main contribution to this distribution) were revealed using the materials of the remote sensing of the Earth from the AURA satellite. The results were calculated for the multi-year period of 2005 through 2021 and separately for 2022, which characterized the full-scale war in Ukraine and which made it possible to identify priority polluters; namely, industrial enterprises (thermal power plants, heavy metallurgy enterprises, etc.). For 17 years, the average value of NO2 was 160.78 · 102 molecules/mm2; in 2022, its concentration decreased to 126.93·109 molecules/mm2. The war manifested itself due to the shutdown of industrial enterprises, which were (and remain) priority polluters in Ukraine (particularly in large cities).

This scientific paper presents a comprehensive assessment of the spatio-temporal dynamics of the ecological state of the Kherson region from 2013 to 2025, with a particular focus on the consequences of the full-scale military aggression by the Russian Federation. Amidst intensive hostilities, the destruction of critical infrastructure, and global climate challenges, objective geospatial monitoring of the natural environment is a crucial task for documenting damages and forecasting the region's future development.The study is based on the use of modern geographic information systems and remote sensing data. Using the Google Earth Engine cloud computing platform and an archive of multispectral satellite imagery from Landsat 8 OLI/TIRS, the Remote Sensing Ecological Index (RSEI) was calculated. This index comprehensively integrates four key biophysical indicators: greenness (based on the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index, NDVI), wetness (Wet), dryness (based on the Normalized Difference Build-up and Soil Index, NDBSI), and land surface temperature (LST). The application of Principal Component Analysis (PCA) allowed these indicators to be mathematically combined into a single standardized index, where the first principal component (PC1) explains the highest proportion of the total spatial data variance. This indicates that the first principal component (PC1) successfully captures the vast majority of the variance among the four input indicators, which is a basic premise of the RSEI methodology.The results of the cartographic and statistical analyses revealed a sharp, unprecedented deterioration in the ecosystem health of the study region in 2025 compared to retrospective data from previous years. A critical drop in the average RSEI value was established – from 0.381 in the relatively stable year of 2021 to 0.205 in 2025. The spatial assessment demonstrated that the area of territories classified as being in a state of ecological crisis (the «Terrible» category, with an index ranking from 0 to 0.2) more than doubled: from 26% of the region's total area in 2021 to a critical 60% in 2025.The sharp drop in RSEI spatially aligns with the large-scale hydrological transformations caused by the destruction of the Kakhovka Dam; however, this indicator also reflects the synergistic impact of intense hostilities, fires, the cessation of irrigation, and climate anomalies. Kakhovka Dam destruction led to the catastrophic destruction of the hydrographic network, the disappearance of water supply sources for vital agricultural lands, and the disruption of life-support systems in urbanized areas. The only exception against the general backdrop of the ecological catastrophe is the recorded local natural restoration of the old Dnipro riverbed ecosystem, which is gradually returning to its historical state that preceded massive anthropogenic intervention and river regulation in the 1950s.In conclusion, the synergistic impact of continuous large-scale hostilities, the destruction of established ecosystem links, and the exacerbation of global climate change shape an extremely bleak forecast. Further degradation of the soil and vegetation cover and the depletion of water resources create a high risk of transforming a significant part of the Kherson region into a territory unfit for safe living, agriculture, and socio-economic functioning. Disclosure of AI use. In the process of conducting research and preparing the manuscript, the author used the large language model Google Gemini 3 Pro. The tool acted as a technical assistant and consultant at the stages:1. Software development: assistance in writing, debugging and optimizing JavaScript scripts for the Google Earth Engine environment, in particular the implementation of the PCA algorithm.2. Text preparation: providing recommendations on structuring the work, describing the methodology and improving the academic style of presentation.The author carried out a full check of the generated code and text, verified the results obtained and bears sole responsibility for the content of this publication. Data availability and integrity. The JavaScript code for Google Earth Engine developed for this study has been deposited in the Zenodo repository with a reserved DOI to ensure long-term accessibility and reproducibility of the results. The code will be publicly available upon acceptance of the manuscript for publication. The data can be provided by the author upon reasonable request. Conflicts of Interest. The author declares that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper. Acknowledgements. The author is grateful to the reviewers and editors for their valuable comments, recommendations, and attention to the work.