The owner of a farm in the Kyiv region organized a large-scale quarry on leased agricultural land, where he and his accomplices illegally extracted sand.
This was reported by the National Police of Ukraine.
Before the police stopped the perpetrators, they managed to create an artificial reservoir with an area of more than 3 hectares and a depth of up to 6 meters — this is like the area of 4 football fields, and in height — like a two-story house. It posed a real threat to the natural hydrological regime of the Irpin River, as in some places less than 3 meters remained to its bed. If the pond had broken through to the river, there was a high risk of flooding of coastal areas, pollution of water with industrial waste, and destruction of banks, roads, dams, and bridges.
The farmer involved his father, brother, and other close relatives in the illegal activity. Illegal extraction was carried out using a dredger, a floating device for underwater soil development. Special slurry pipes were laid from it to transport the extracted sand to the shore. The perpetrators sold the sand on demand.
Photo: npu.gov.ua.
Photo: npu.gov.ua.
The organizers of the scheme did not obtain any special permits for the use of subsoil resources. The deposits themselves are not even on the state balance sheet of reserves.
The police conducted searches at the dealers' places of residence and at the site of illegal extraction. They seized sand extraction equipment, documents, and mobile phones containing evidence of illegal activity.
Photo: npu.gov.ua.
Photo: npu.gov.ua.
Photo: npu.gov.ua.
Experts are currently determining the actual volume of illegally extracted minerals and calculating the amount of damage caused to the state.
The pre-trial investigation is being conducted under Part 3 of Article 240 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine — illegal extraction of minerals of national importance, committed by a group of persons by prior conspiracy. According to this article, the defendants face up to six years in prison.
Recently, EcoPolitics wrote about a case of illegal extraction of 30,000 cubic meters of sand on the territory of a forestry in the Lviv region, causing losses of over UAH 16 million.
We also previously reported that in Rivne region, the Ministry of Environmental Protection and Natural Resources of Ukraine approved the destruction of 72 hectares of forest to create quarries for the extraction of sand and amber.
