The problem of environmental pollution, in particular the sea, became more acute in connection with the war of the Russian Federation against Ukraine, which began in 2014 and became full-scale on February 24, 2022. This is due to the dumping of corpses into the sea, the fall of fragments of rockets, shells, martyrs and other dangerous things for flora and fauna. The above causes new challenges in the issue of regulatory measures to protect the sea from pollution and proportionate response to the damage caused. The purpose of this article is to help to approximate the national criminal legislation in the context of combating sea pollution to European and international standards. The methodological basis of the research is general scientific and special methods of scientific knowledge. In particular, the dogmatic, dialectical method, methods of induction and deduction, analysis and generalization, systematics, methods of formal logic, comparison, hypothesis, synthesis, as well as structural-functional, system analysis, method of system-structural analysis, case study method were applied. It has been established that the concept of personal culpable responsibility in the context of sea pollution needs revision. Measures to optimize the national legislation with the legislation of the European Union in terms of measures regarding sea pollution are proposed. It is proposed to spread the “polluter pays” concept in Ukraine. It is necessary to integrate with international and European organizations that focus their activities on environmental protection and protection of the sea from pollution, in particular.