Officially, the planning of the E40 waterway is still at an early stage, but in Ukraine, strategic documents are already being prepared and individual project parts are being implemented.

[1] The implementation of the E40 project has attracted considerable criticism from international and local public organizations in all three countries, as well as experts in the biological and environmental fields.

This was confirmed by a study conducted by Aivar Ruukel, a member of the board of the Global Ecotourism Network and a tour operator in the Soomaa National Park, Estonia.

Although the project route will not pass through the territory Volyn region, it depends on the water resources of this area and will affect the local hydrological situation.

Also, the invitation of participants from this area is explained by the intention to receive financial support under the Program of Cross-border Cooperation Poland-Belarus-Ukraine, funded by the European Union.

[14] On December 1, 2013, the project "Restoration of the main waterway E-40 on the Dnieper-Vistula section from strategy to planning"(2007-2015) was launched with a budget of more than 0.9 million euros.

[16] Today, international and European financial institutions have not agreed financing the E40, because they have quite strict requirements for the environmental friendliness of the projects they support.

On October 4, 2019, as part of the participation in the Second Forum of the Regions of Ukraine and Belarus, the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky and the President of the Republic of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko concluded an agreement, according to which in 2020 the Ukrainian side was to conduct dredging on the Pripyat and Dnieper rivers, necessary to restore full-fledged ship traffic.

February 6, 2020 Minister of Infrastructure of Ukraine Vladyslav Krykliy stated that «the project to restore the E-40 river route has reached the stage of practical implementation».

September 30, 2020 Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine adopted a resolution "On Amendments to the List of inland waterways classified as navigable".

[21] After critical statements of public organizations,[21] State Agency of Ukraine for Exclusion Zone Management promised to exclude this section from the strategy.

The goal of the campaign is to promote Polesia as a unique nature reserve with high environmental and cultural significance, including for obtaining the status of a World Heritage Site and the cancellation of the construction of the E40 waterway.

The coalition believes that the E40 project is poorly thought out and economically impractical, and the construction of the E40 itself will be a disaster both for the unique region of the Belarusian Polesia, and for a number of valuable natural territories of Poland and Ukraine.

At the same time, the virgin territory of Polesia has great potential for promoting ecotourism, strengthening local business and sustainable development of the entire region.

The E40 channel is planned to transport millions of tons of cargo that will sail from the project countries (coal, ore, metal, potash fertilizers, table salt, sugar, crushed stone, peat, timber, sapropels, etc.)

In particular, the deputy director of the Union of Entrepreneurs and Employers named after Professor M. S. Kunyavsky Ales Gerasimenko noted that this waterway will be uncompetitive with road and rail transport if it is not subsidized.

Kunyavsky believes that the investment costs for the development of the Ukrainian segment of the Dnieper river-even without the reconstruction of bridges-are underestimated by almost 100 million euros.

[25] According to experts,[2] the main disadvantages of the project are the following: Today, the functioning of the Dnieper-Bug Canal, which is to become part of the E40, provokes significant hydrological problems.

The transboundary problem of filling the Dnieper-Bug water system can cause degradation of the Pripyat riverbed, Svyatoe, Volyanskoe and Beloe lakes due to the operation of the water supply system.Many parts of Polesia are of international importance as exceptional natural monuments, which have received the status of biosphere reserves UNESCO, objects under the protection of the Ramsar Convention.