War-induced soil contamination in Ukraine is widely debated topic due to many controversial results. The sites of military equipment explosion are considered to be the most contaminated. Therefore, we present a multi-proxy study of the military helicopter crash site in Kharkiv region, combining pedological, geochemical and geophysical methods. Two types of contamination were revealed at the study site: pre-war industrial contamination and pollution caused by the helicopter crash. The study site was found to be significantly contaminated with heavy metals and slightly contaminated with polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons. The main contaminants are cadmium, copper and zinc, while the content of other heavy metals is close to background levels. The increased concentration of trace elements in the soil parent material indicates their vertical migration. Magnetic susceptibility has 10% higher values compared to the background ones at the epicentre of the explosion, whereas it decreases below 50 cm depth, which correlate with the observed pollution distribution. Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons show increased concentrations only in the topsoil, notably benzo(a)pyrene, fluoranthene, pyrene and benzo(k)fluoranthene. These compounds originate from helicopter fuel and lubricants. Therefore, the military helicopter crash site is one of those where the soil is heavily contaminated, but the contamination is rather confined to a small area. The identification of these sites is essential for the development of reasonable post-war reclamation strategies.
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