In the Kyiv region, the police uncovered a large-scale scheme of illegal felling and sale of wood, the losses of which reached 4 million hryvnias.
A group of 9 criminals, which included officials, worked in two districts of the region, they face up to 7 years in prison, the Police of the Kyiv region reported on Facebook.
It is noted that the trees were destroyed under the guise of sanitary cleaning of the forest. In Bilotserkiv district, wood was sold as firewood, and in Vyshhorod district – as boards.
The police conducted 15 searches on the territory of Kyiv and the region, as well as in Zhytomyr Oblast. They found computer equipment, mobile phones, SIM cards, bank cards, rough accounting, wood chipping seals.
"Removed material evidence testifies to illegal activity and organization of underground felling of the forest under the guise of sanitary measures," the press service said.
In the message, it was emphasized that it was possible to expose the offense thanks to the joint work of the police, the prosecutor's office and the State Environmental Inspection of Ukraine.
"We understand that this is not the first and, unfortunately, not the last case of crimes against the environment, so we hope for an initiative and fruitful and, most importantly, effective cooperation with specialized state law enforcement agencies: forest protection, ecological inspection and fish protection," he said head of the police of the Kyiv region Andrii Nebytov.
He added that environmental crimes not only harm today, but will also affect future generations.
Earlier, EcoPolitic wrote, that in the Kyiv region, in the Yagotynsky district, on part of the territory of the future reserve of local importance "Chernyakhivski Luky", a self-seeded forest was destroyed.
As EcoPolitic previously reported, detectives of the State Bureau of Investigation uncovered an organized criminal group in the Carpathian region of forestry officials and foresters who cut down trees worth over 2.2 million hryvnias in the Hutsulshchyna National Park.
