Ukrainian law enforcement officers, as part of the European programme to combat environmental crime, EMPACT ENVI, coordinated by Europol, are conducting a multi-stage operation under the working name “PELIGROSOS”.
As reported by the National Police, the work of law enforcement in this area is comprehensive: from documenting the activities of companies that violate established waste-handling rules, to holding accountable those involved in criminal offences and determining the amount of damage caused to the state and the environment. Officers are also identifying illegal sites for the accumulation, processing and disposal of hazardous waste.
Police have already identified 40 business entities whose activities in the waste-management sector were carried out in breach of legal requirements. The evidence gathered has provided grounds to serve notices of suspicion on 30 individuals.
Among the suspects are the director, his deputy and the chief accountant of a commercial company who, on forest fund land in Dnipropetrovsk Region, buried hazardous waste directly in the soil instead of disposing of it properly. As a result, an illegal dump of construction and municipal solid waste formed. To conceal their unlawful activity, the suspects changed waste-classifier codes from hazardous to non-hazardous. According to a preliminary estimate, in 2025 this landfill received more than 140,000 tonnes of waste.
Law enforcement officers said that, in parallel, the suspects were illegally extracting minerals and failing to pay the environmental tax. To carry out financial transactions, they used controlled transit companies through which they “laundered” funds.
In Cherkasy Region a company signed a contract with a capital-city hospital to dispose of radioactive, toxic, medical and hazardous waste using budget funds. However, instead of proper disposal, the waste was piled up and discharged onto a plot of land not designated for that purpose. The case against the company’s director and his deputy, the chief environmental specialist, is currently being heard in court.
In Kyiv law enforcement officers uncovered a site for the illegal accumulation and storage of hazardous medical waste. This included used disposable syringes, needles, ampoules, medicine vials, surgical scalpel blades, laboratory materials and other medical items, as well as specialised containers marked “Dangerous” and bearing the international biohazard symbol. The waste was stored in warehouse premises without complying with environmental safety requirements.
In Volyn Region municipal solid waste was systematically dumped on a plot of land owned by the community. The area was not a specially equipped landfill, and its land-use category did not meet legal requirements for waste placement. As a result, an unauthorised dump formed on open ground, covering more than 52,000 square metres — roughly seven football pitches. Soil tests recorded exceedances of the maximum permissible concentrations of nitrates and ammonium. The systematic accumulation of waste led to littering and chemical contamination of the land, and also created risks of pollutants entering groundwater and surface waters. The director of the municipal enterprise has been served a notice of suspicion. The indictment against him has already been sent to court.
Contamination with hazardous substances can have long-term consequences for soils, water resources and ecosystems as a whole. Based on the facts uncovered by law enforcement, the amount of environmental damage totals nearly UAH 60 million.
Measures within the multi-stage “PELIGROSOS” operation are continuing across the whole of Ukraine.
EMPACT ENVI is the Operational Action Plan for Environmental Crime (Operational Action Plan for Environmental Crime, ENVI) within the European Multidisciplinary Platform Against Criminal Threats (European Multidisciplinary Platform Against Criminal Threats, EMPACT) — an integrated EU security mechanism implemented with the participation of Europol.
One of the priority areas is aimed at countering organised environmental crime in the member states of the European Union. EMPACT ENVI cooperation brings together law enforcement agencies, customs services, regulatory and judicial authorities of EU states to exchange operational information, conduct joint operations and improve methods for investigating environmental crimes.