News 05 Oct, 2015 Ukraine - Fines for Dirty Ballast Water - Updated Further to the Club’s previous article on the imposition of fines for vessels allegedly found to have discharged contaminated segregated ballast water in the Ukraine , additional information has been received from correspondents Dias Marine Consulting PC, Odessa. The law in the Ukraine regarding the control of segregated ballast water on board vessels has recently changed. If a vessel has segregated ballast tanks, ecological inspectors are no longer permitted to board, inspect IOPP certification, take segregated ballast water samples for analysis or impose fines on the grounds that the vessel has discharged contaminated segregated ballast water. Moreover, ecological inspectors in Ukraine are no longer included in the list of official personnel required to board vessels in order to issue inward clearance. However, in spite of the new legislation, ecological inspectors may still try to board vessels with segregated ballast tanks during cargo operations and demand to take samples of the ballast water. As the inspectors are no longer authorised to do so, masters are advised to reject their demands and invite the inspectors to return once a Club correspondent or local lawyer is in attendance. Masters may use the following extract from the Ukrainian Ecological Regulations, translated by Dias Marine Consulting, to justify their refusal to permit access to and sampling of segregated ballast water: On 3 April 2015 there came into force Order 82 dd. 18.03.2015 (filing No. 343/26788) of the Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources of Ukraine “on introducing changes into some state ecological control regulations”. By virtue of this Order chemical control of segregated ballast is cancelled. The said Order is aimed at improvement of the ecological control service activity and also it is intended to bring certain Ukrainian normative and legal acts in conformity with the international law. For example, some change