Land Pollution in the Structure of Crime in Ukraine

The crime of polluting or damaging land (Article 239 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine) is also an interesting example for studying the impact of war on the structure of crime in Ukraine.

During the period 2013–2022, the number of registered crimes in this category ranged from 75 to 194 each year (an average of 106 crimes per year). However, in 2021, there was a sharp increase in crimes in this category, reaching 373 crimes.

The start of the War made a large number of crimes in this category latent, with only 149 crimes registered in 2022.

The following years again showed a significant increase in cases of land pollution or damage (288 crimes in 2022, 285 crimes in 2024).

Moreover, in just six months of 2025, 200 crimes of this category were registered, accounting for 70.1% of the total number of crimes of this category registered in 2024.

It is presumed that all of these crimes were committed by individuals in the territory controlled by the Government and, more importantly, relatively far from the front line. Otherwise, the Ukrainian authorities would have classified such cases as ‘ecocide’ (Article 441 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine). This, in turn, indicates that from the very beginning, the War stopped the wave of crimes in this category and forced the perpetrators to hide in the shadows. However, this segment of crime quickly adapted to the conditions of the wartime, taking advantage of the weakness of the State apparatus at the local level and other priorities of the State related to direct threats from Russia.

However, given that the crime of ecocide has extremely serious consequences, it cannot be ruled out that some of the crimes provided for in Article 239 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine were the result of actions by Russian aggressors in the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine.

At the same time, the crime of land pollution or degradation (Article 239 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine) has become less and less latent over time, and the war, oddly enough, has made it even less latent.

Before the war, the average ratio between the total number of open criminal proceedings and criminal proceedings with suspects was almost 30, but in 2022 this figure fell to 18.6, in 2023 to 12.5, and in 2024 to 6.6.

Moreover, the same indicator for the first six months of 2025 fell to 5.5.