EcoPolitic has collected the 7 most significant cases of environmental damage that were made public during the week of November 16-22. The information was published by the press services of prosecutors' offices and units of the State Environmental Inspectorate of Ukraine.
1. On November 19, 2024, on the territory of the Tuzly Estuaries National Nature Park, state environmental inspectors of the Southwestern District, together with inspectors of the Odesa Fisheries Patrol, water police officers of the Bilhorod-Dnistrovskyi District Police and the Kurortne Border Guard Service, detained an offender who was engaged in illegal fishing. Using three fishing nets, the offender caught 420 flounders without permission on Lake Alibey, near the village of Zhovtyi Yar, Bilhorod-Dnistrovskyi district, Odesa region. The inspectors calculated over UAH 18 million in damage to Ukraine's fish stocks.
2. The Economic Court of Rivne region upheld the claim of the State Ecological Inspectorate of Polissia District and ruled to recover from Dubrovytsia City Council UAH 4.9 million of damage caused to the environment by illegal felling of 840 trees of different species on forestry land plots owned by Dubrovytsia City Council near Shakhy and Velyki Ozera villages.
3. In the Rivne region, the Varaska District Prosecutor's Office went to court and ordered the Zarichne village council to return to state ownership a 40.4-hectare land plot within the Nobel National Nature Park worth more than UAH 1 billion. Earlier, the local community had registered its communal ownership of the disputed land without any legal grounds.
4. In Ivano-Frankivsk region, prosecutors served a notice of suspicion to an engineer at a Kalush enterprise. He is charged with illegal extraction of minerals of national importance – groundwater. The amount of environmental damage amounted to over UAH 4.9 million.
5. A 50-year-old resident of Kosiv district, who illegally cut down trees in the territory of the nature reserve fund in October 2024, was also suspected. By his actions, he caused more than UAH 1 million in damage to the state.
6. Prosecutors of the Voznesensk District Prosecutor's Office in Mykolaiv region succeeded in court in stopping the illegal use of the lands of the Buzky Gard National Nature Park, which is part of the Emerald Network of Ukraine and belongs to the lands of the nature reserve fund. The investigation found that Oleksandrivka village council illegally transferred 5 land plots with a total area of 10 hectares and a value of over UAH 180 million, which belong to the national park, into private ownership for private farming.
7. The Pidvolochysk village council in Ternopil region will pay UAH 4.7 million to the state budget for environmental damage caused by illegal landfills – the relevant court decision has entered into force. Prosecutors proved that this local government body failed to properly fulfill its statutory obligations in the field of environmental protection and the relevant orders of the State Environmental Inspectorate in Ternopil Oblast to eliminate illegal landfills of household waste in the community for 2 years. This led to land pollution and contamination and, as a result, environmental damage.
Earlier, EcoPolitic prepared an infographic about the environmental damage in Ukraine over 1000 days of full-scale war.
