12 October 2025
(PHOTO: State Environmental Inspectorate of the Southwest District)
The Izmail City District Court of Odesa Region approved the agreement between the director of the Kommunalnyk collective enterprise and the prosecutor on the entrepreneur's plea of guilty.
The director was sentenced to five years in prison with a three-year disqualification to hold positions related to waste management at enterprises and institutions of any form of ownership. However, his actual sentence was commuted to a year of probation.
The director of Kommunalnyk was accused of being involved in a scheme organized by an official who, according to the investigation, teamed up with his friend to set up a company that was officially engaged in agency services for ships, but was actually used for illegal enrichment through improper handling of hazardous waste, which caused land contamination at the landfill that the company operated.
To conceal the environmental offense, they entered into a formal agreement with a licensed company for the disposal of hazardous waste. However, the actual implementation of the agreement never started.
The scheme also involved three people who were responsible for cleaning ships from bilge water with a high content of oil products. The waste was illegally dumped at a landfill in the Izmail district instead of being utilized. As a result, land plots were contaminated with toxic substances, causing environmental damage worth more than UAH 23 million.
The Odesa Regional Prosecutor's Office served a notice of suspicion to the director of Kommunalnyk, a deputy of Safianivka village council in Odesa region, and four members of the criminal group on charges of land contamination with waste and abuse of power for the purpose of obtaining illegal benefits (Article 239(2), Article 364-1(2) of the Criminal Code of Ukraine).
Кирило Бойко