“War creates invisible chemical risks through PCBs. Find out why this threatens the health and future of Ukraine.”, — write: www.pravda.com.ua
It is about the health and future of each of us — about the invisible consequences of the war, which do not disappear with the restored substation and do not get into the news, because they cannot be photographed.
We are used to measuring the consequences of energy shocks in hours without power, generators, outage schedules and repair times. This is understandable. But behind this “visible” dimension is another — toxic and long-lasting. Dangerous substances can remain under the debris and in the soil of affected energy facilities for decades. They don’t go away when the electricity comes back on. They accumulate — in territories, in food chains, in risks to people who live nearby.
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That is why this topic has no right to remain “for narrow specialists”. If the state pretends that the problem does not exist, it will be “noticed” by the environment — and sooner or later it will manifest itself through water, soil and disease statistics.
A reaction is needed here and now: a transparent inventory, control, protocols for handling destruction waste and the responsibility of the authorities for the fulfillment of international obligations. Otherwise, we will rebuild the country on a toxic foundation, ignoring the catastrophe that is already happening.
The war taught us to quickly get used to destruction. To broken windows, destroyed buildings, blacked-out areas and nighttime shelling of the energy sector. When a missile or drone hits a power station, we’re talking about outage schedules, generators, and recovery times. The light disappears – the light returns. And it seems that this is the end of the story.
But war leaves behind not only ruins that can be rebuilt, and not only temporary inconveniences to which we have become accustomed. It leaves long-term, often invisible consequences that do not disappear with the launch of the repaired equipment. Under each destroyed substation, in the soil and destruction waste, dangerous substances may remain not for months or years, but for decades.
Damage and fires of oil-filled equipment create a risk not only of local pollution, but also of the formation of secondary toxic combustion products (digoxins and furans), which can spread with smoke and settle in the surrounding areas. That is why international practice considers such incidents as chemically dangerous and requires separate response protocols.
Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) are one such threat. They are not mentioned in the summaries after the shelling, they are not visible in the photographs of the restored energy facilities, but today they are the hidden ecological legacy of the war. And while society is counting the hours without electricity, Ukraine is silently accumulating a toxic problem, the scale of which no one dares to say out loud.
Ukrainian power substations, especially those built during the Soviet period, have operated transformers and other equipment with PCB-containing transformer (dielectric) oils for decades. This is not an assumption or a sensation — it is a fixed fact known to enterprises, regulators and specialists. However, after 2022, the situation has fundamentally changed. Mass missile strikes on energy means mass physical destruction of PCB equipment, spillage of transformer oils into the ground, burning, spraying of toxic substances and the formation of secondary sources of pollution in the form of debris, soil and dismantling waste.
And all this happens without proper accounting, control and evaluation of the consequences. The temporary lack of light became a central topic of public debate, while long-term toxic pollution remained out of focus. The light is restored. PCB – no.
The national inventory of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) was carried out under the coordination of the Ministry of Environment with the involvement of subdepartmental scientific institutions and within the framework of international technical assistance projects. After the liquidation of the Ministry of Environment, the legal successor as the holder of the relevant databases was not publicly identified, and information about the location and current status of the PCB register was not made public. Thus, it is not known who keeps the PCB registry today and whether it is used to prevent chemical risks during wartime. This is not a technical detail, but a matter of the safety of people and territories.
PCBs are not just harmful chemicals. These are carcinogens, substances that disrupt the work of the endocrine system, accumulate in soils, water and food chains and practically do not break down for decades.
One destroyed transformer can mean dozens of tons of contaminated soil for years to come. One affected substation is a local environmental disaster that does not go away with the activation of a backup power line.
The lack of identification of PCBs at the stage of dismantling and removal means the transfer of risk from the site of damage to the chains of logistics, temporary storage and processing of waste. In this way, the chemical risk is not eliminated, but only shifted in space, complicating further management of the consequences.
The PCB register is a tool not for retrospective accounting, but for operational safety. Its value lies in the ability to identify high-risk objects, prepare engineering barriers, response algorithms and logistics of hazardous waste management even before an incident.
About the system of silent conspiracy Formally, there is a PCB accounting system in Ukraine. There is a register, there are responsible enterprises, there is reporting. Transformers and other PCB-containing equipment were present in enterprises of Donetsk region, Dnipropetrovsk region, Kyiv region and others. In fact, this register is becoming more and more distant from reality. Data is understated, not updated, or not viewed at all after destruction. Re-assessment of soil and waste contamination after missile strikes is not carried out in most cases.
The reason for this silence is simple and uncomfortable. Companies are afraid to show the real volumes of PCBs. To show means to take responsibility. There are only a few licensed operators for the management of such waste in Ukraine. There are practically no full-fledged disposal technologies or they are economically unattainable. And there is responsibility. In wartime conditions, this creates a system of tacit collusion, where everyone understands everything, but prefers not to record.
The situation with waste from the destruction of energy facilities is particularly dangerous. Today, they are often perceived as ordinary building materials or scrap metal that needs to be removed quickly. In fact, it is an uncontrolled secondary source of PCB pollution. Debris, ash, contaminated soil and equipment can spread toxins far beyond substations — into temporary sites, into community environments, and into aquifers. This is not speculation or hyperbole, but basic toxicology and ecology.
The war does not stop Ukraine’s international obligations The Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants does not contain provisions on the “temporary disregard” of PCBs during hostilities. Control, minimization of emissions and safe handling of such substances remain the responsibility of the state. As well as the duty not to transfer delayed ecological and medical consequences to the shoulders of citizens.
The most dangerous thing in this situation is silence. We talk a lot about the destroyed energy sector, billions for the restoration and stability of the system. But we hardly talk about the fact that this recovery often takes place on a toxic foundation. Without public recognition of the PCB problem after missile strikes, there will be no international aid, no technology, no honest accounting. The ecological and medical crisis will only be postponed.
The state pretends that the problem does not exist In this situation, the role of the central executive body, which today combines functions in the spheres of economy, environment and agriculture, is especially indicative. The Ministry of Economy, Environment and Agriculture is responsible for the formation and implementation of the state policy on persistent organic pollutants, ensuring the implementation of the Stockholm Convention, maintaining and updating the PCB register, organizing the inventory of PCB-containing equipment and monitoring its safe decommissioning and disposal.
However, in reality, these powers actually remained on paper. Mass destruction of energy infrastructure as a result of missile strikes is not accompanied by a systemic state response from the point of view of PCB risks. There are no mandatory state procedures for the re-inventory of PCBs after objects have been damaged, a special regime for accounting for destruction waste as potentially dangerous has not been introduced, and mechanisms for the prompt selection and analysis of soils and materials have not been created. In fact, the state pretends that the problem does not exist, shifting the responsibility to enterprises that have neither the technology nor the real tools to meet these requirements.
This approach directly contradicts Ukraine’s basic obligations under the Stockholm Convention. The convention does not require formal accounting of PCBs “on paper”, but active identification, labeling, inventory and control of PCB sources, minimization of unintentional emissions and prevention of the formation of new secondary sources of pollution. It also imposes on the state the obligation to ensure environmentally safe handling of PCB-containing materials and waste, including those generated as a result of accidents and destruction. Martial law does not exempt from these obligations and does not give the right to ignore new sources of pollution.
The absence of publicly available data on the content of PCBs at specific objects is not proof of their absence. In risk management systems, such a situation is interpreted as increased uncertainty, which requires preventive actions, not ignoring.
About the direct risk of international claims It is especially dangerous that in the conditions of the actual absence of state control, secondary sources of PCBs are formed massively and without a trace. This creates not only internal environmental risks, but also a direct risk of international claims. In accordance with Ukraine’s international obligations in the field of persistent organic pollutants management, polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) are subject to mandatory inventory, accounting and special handling procedures, in particular in case of accidents and destruction. Military actions do not cancel these requirements, but on the contrary – increase the relevance of preventive management of risks related to PCBs.
Data on non-fulfillment of obligations under the Stockholm Convention may become the subject of consideration at the level of its governing bodies, international environmental mechanisms and donor institutions, which are already financing the restoration of the Ukrainian energy industry today. The lack of reliable accounting of PCBs after missile strikes means that recovery occurs without toxic risk controls—a matter not only of ecology, but also of trust.
At this point, silence ceases to be neutral. It turns into a form of inaction that has quite measurable legal consequences. And if the state does not begin to recognize the scale of the PCB problem now, the next instance where this issue will be raised may not be Ukrainian newsrooms, but international platforms for monitoring the implementation of conventions.
Ignoring the risks associated with PCBs creates the threat that remediation and reconstruction projects will be implemented in areas with undetected chemical contamination. This creates financial, legal and reputational risks for both the state and international partners involved in reconstruction.
This is not a story about “after the war”. This is a story about the here and now. That each quick cleaning without analysis and control can mean decades of toxic legacy for a specific area. And if the state, regulators, and energy companies don’t start telling the truth, the soil, water, and disease statistics will eventually tell the truth. But then it will no longer be a column, but a verdict.
Lyudmila Tsyganokfounder of ESG Liga, president of the Association of Environmental Professionals PAEW, general director of the “Office of Sustainable Solutions”
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