Who we are

Greenpeace is a movement passionate about protecting the natural world from destruction. The organization was founded in 1971, now operates in sixty countries, and has over 3 million supporters.

Greenpeace: A Legacy of Courage and Environmental Action

Greenpeace’s history began with a courageous act in September 1971 in Vancouver. A small group of activists, driven by their passion for the environment, decided to stop a U.S. nuclear weapons test. They sailed to Amchitka Island off the coast of Alaska on an old fishing boat named “The Greenpeace.”

This act of bravery has since inspired millions, leading to the organization’s growth to over three million supporters worldwide and a network of environmental activists in more than sixty countries.

In 1975, Greenpeace opened its first real office in Vancouver and launched its most famous campaign, the defense of whales. After centuries of intensive and indiscriminate hunting, many whale species were at risk of extinction without intervention. Greenpeace’s decision to directly confront the whaling ships was a bold move that changed the course of history. Activists positioned dinghies between the whales and the ships to block the harpoons, creating iconic images of harpoons narrowly missing activists and striking the whales instead. Crowds greeted the crew of the Phyllis Cormack upon their return to port, and in 1982, the International Whaling Commission voted to adopt a moratorium on commercial whaling, a decision that remains in effect today.

Since the first campaign, the Greenpeace team has grown dramatically, and so has the number of actions worldwide to protect the environment. Our mission is to promote radical changes and new solutions to how we live on this planet so that we can all call it home for generations.

Greenpeace Central and Eastern Europe

After the collapse of the Eastern Bloc and the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, Greenpeace expanded its work into the countries of the former Eastern Bloc. Greenpeace Austria played a crucial role in this effort. Since 2000, the Austrian Greenpeace office has been the headquarters for Greenpeace in Central and Eastern Europe. They are responsible for setting up and expanding Greenpeace’s work in Hungary, Croatia, Poland, Romania, Slovenia, Bulgaria, Slovakia, and since 2024, Ukraine.

Greenpeace in Ukraine

Greenpeace Ukraine’s history began in the late 1980s in response to the Chornobyl nuclear disaster. As one of the first international organizations to arrive in Ukraine, Greenpeace aimed to establish a hospital for Chornobyl children and equip it with the latest medical technology. 

As a result, in 1989, we launched the “Greenpeace Children of Chornobyl” project to provide medical help for children in Ukraine. While the hospital was not open, Greenpeace quipped a lab in one of Kyiv’s children’s hospitals. This lab was later donated to the city of Kyiv, and Canadian doctors helped train their Ukrainian counterparts. The unit, staffed by a pediatrician and lab technicians, screened children for blood deficiencies, working closely with the local pediatric system, which had been severely strained since the 1986 nuclear accident.

Additionally, Greenpeace, alongside other environmental organizations, established an independent environmental laboratory to investigate radioactive contamination of soil, food, and water in the Chornobyl area.

The Critical Years and Protests

The late 1980s and early 1990s were critical times for environmental activists. In 1993, Greenpeace activists in Ukraine chained themselves near the entrance of the German embassy in Kyiv to protest toxic waste imports, as thousands of tons of toxic waste were exported to Ukraine from Germany every year. Activists also launched many actions against the construction of new nuclear power plants in Ukraine. In 1994, Greenpeace activists from the ship Moby Dick protested against the expansion of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear facility by hanging a banner on the cooling towers. It was the first time a Greenpeace ship came to Ukraine to support the activists.

In 1994, Greenpeace activists picketed the Kyiv City State Administration, demanding that Kyiv residents receive clean drinking water. According to research, at that time, the chlorine content in drinking water exceeded the norm several times. Greenpeace installed a giant crane and a banner with demands in front of the Kyiv City Administration to draw attention to the water quality problem in Kyiv. The campaign partially succeeded as the Kyiv authorities began considering alternative water purification methods in the capital. However, they did not switch to oxygen purification technology, as Greenpeace demanded.

A New Era: Responding to Crisis

A new era of organizational work began as a response to Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. In 2022, Greenpeace Central and Eastern Europe launched the “Greening Ukraine Reconstruction” project, advocating for green recovery and showcasing the best practices of eco-reconstruction. Despite not having an office in Ukraine, Greenpeace completed the reconstruction of the heating system in Horenka Hospital and Hostomel kindergarten, launched two research missions to Chornobyl, and continued to monitor the situation at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant while advocating for sanctions against Rosatom.

In September 2024, Greenpeace officially reopened its office in Ukraine.