One of the main contemporary problems is the disruption of the ecological balance caused by pollution, deterioration, and destruction of natural systems. During periods of armed conflict, when environmental destruction is often used as a tactic of war, this issue becomes even more dangerous. However, the Rome Statute of the ICC covers environmental crimes only to a certain extent, and international law still lacks an effective system of liability for significant environmental damage. The purpose of the article is to investigate the criminal law and ecological law aspects of ecocide, to substantiate the need of its recognition as a separate international crime, and to assess the Ukrainian experience as a potential legal precedent for shaping new approaches in international criminal law. The article proposes a comprehensive interdisciplinary study of ecocide in the context of national and international law using a wide range of scientific methods, including analysis, synthesis, induction, deduction, analogy, abstraction, and generalization.