Officials who cut forests worth tens of millions of hryvnias will be judged in Vinnytsia

Officials who cut forests worth tens of millions of hryvnias will be judged in Vinnytsia
Katerina Belousova

Among the defendants will be one of the deputy heads of the Vinnytsia Oblast Department of Forestry and Hunting

In the Vinnytsia region, 5 officials of the forest industry will appear before the court, whose "forest frauds" caused losses of 87 million hryvnias.

Over 3 years, they illegally cut down about 13,000 trees of various species, including rare ones, in the Kryzhopol Forest Farm, reports the Territorial Department of the State Bureau of Investigation in the city of Khmelnytskyi on Facebook.

The press service noted that the group of attackers included an official of Kryzhopol Forestry, the chief forester and an engineer of this forest farm. And also one of the deputy heads of the Vinnytsia Regional Department of Forestry and Hunting and the head of one of the departments of this department.

This territorial administration of the DBR extends its activities to the Vinnytsia, Zhytomyr, Rivne, Khmelnytsky, and Chernivtsi regions.

Earlier, EcoPolitic wrote, that in October 2022, in Vinnytsia, the prosecutor's office informed 5 officials from the management of the forestry and hunting management and Kryzhopol Forestry of suspicion of exceeding their official powers, which caused serious consequences.

As EcoPolitic previously reported, in Vinnytsia, the State Bureau of Investigation reported suspicion to a forester from Yampil Forestry of State Enterprise Zhmeryn Forestry for plowing 14 hectares of the nature reserve. It was part of a plan to create a private hunting ground.

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The court decided to remand the suspects in custody, with the possibility of bail