EcoPolitic journalists have collected for their readers the 10 most significant cases of environmental damage that became known during the week of January 18-24. Information about them was made public by the press services of prosecutor's offices, the State Bureau of Investigation (SBI), as well as the State Environmental Inspectorate of Ukraine and its subdivisions.
1. In Ivano-Frankivsk region, GBI investigators exposed the leading officials of Kut forestry who organized large-scale tree felling on the territory of the National Nature Park “Hutsulshchyna”. During May-December 2022, more than 1.7 thousand trees of different species were illegally cut down here. According to the expertise, the environmental damage amounted to more than 257 million UAH.
Photo: ifr.gp.gov.ua.
The director and head of one of the departments of the leskhoz, an engineer and the chairman of the liquidation commission were involved in the fraud. They issued logging tickets for selective felling ostensibly for forest rehabilitation and formation without coordination with the Ministry of Natural Resources and without authorization from the regional administration, as required by law. The officials had no such approvals.
Investigators have informed all the defendants of suspicion of abuse of authority and illegal logging and sale of timber as part of an organized criminal group. They risk being behind bars for up to 10 years.
2. In Volyn, the GBI officers together with the SBU managed to prevent a similar crime. They exposed the assistant forester and two forestry engineers. Under the guise of dead and damaged trees, the defendants planned to cut down top-grade business timber.
Photo: dbr.gov.ua.
They allocated 325 absolutely healthy pines for felling, which they later planned to sell. In the documents they were designated as damaged and disease-ridden.
The environmental damage from cutting down these trees would be more than 6.5 million UAH. However, the SBI workers prevented them from cutting down the trees: the next day after receiving the logging tickets, the attackers were exposed. They were informed of a suspicion of a complete attempt to illegally cut down trees, by prior conspiracy by a group of people and the entry of knowingly false information into official documents. Now officials face imprisonment for up to 7 years.
3. Environmental inspectors of the Dnieper district calculated losses in the amount 16.5 million UAHfor pollution of land resources by sewage on the territory of a land plot in the city of Krivoy Rog, Dnepropetrovsk region. They filed a criminal complaint with the police.
4. Chief state inspector of one of the departments of the State Fisheries Agency in the Khmelnitsky region exposed on poaching. In July 2024, he, along with two friends using a fishing network, caught about 700 fish units. A third of them are the Red Book cutout of the Black Sea, the rest are bream, carp, pike perch and others.
They caught fish in wrong places on the Dniester River, including on the territory of the natural-reserve fund. Then the Rybin inspector sold it. With his actions, he caused the state damage in the amount about 7 million UAH.
5. In the Chernihiv region, environmental inspectorate specialists calculated losses in the amount of more than 2.7 million for the illegal felling of 122 trees by unidentified persons near the village of Mateevka on the territory of the Baturinsky territorial community of the Nezhinsky district. They sent materials about the offense to the police.
6. Environmental inspectors of the Polish district assessed more than 2.3 million UAHdamage caused to the state as a result of land contamination with sanding paper waste. In the city of Rivne, on the street. They recorded an unauthorized dump for construction workers on an area of 64 square meters. m with an average layer thickness of 1 m. Environmental inspectors were unable to identify the violators – they sent the materials to the police.
7. Pulin community in the Zhytomyr region can be forced to compensate almost 1.8 million UAH lossesFor illegal cutting of 222 trees of different breeds on its territory, the economic court of the Zhytomyr region decided to open the proceedings.
Photo: t.me/polissyareg_dei.
Eco -inspectors discovered violations in the fall of 2023 between settlements with. Budishche and s. Buryakovka on the lands of communal property of the Pulin territorial community. Since the police did not find offenders, the damage caused by the environment should compensate the local government, within which the forest is located.
8. The case has come to the court, about which eco -policy told In November 2024: They will judge Head of the Southwestern Interregional Directorate of Forestry and Hunting and two of his accomplices, who illegally cut down more than 3 hectares of forests on more than 6.5 million UAH.
They are charged with abuse of power committed by a group of people, which resulted in grave consequences. The defendants face imprisonment for a term of 7 to 10 years with deprivation of the right to hold certain positions or engage in certain activities for up to 3 years.
9. The company "MARINO SHIPPING CO PTE LTD", whose vessel polluted the waters of the Yuzhny port in the Odessa region with 8 tons of palm oil in April 2020, fully paid for the damage caused. The total amount of damage was almost 65 million UAH. A foreign company tried to appeal the decision of the economic court of the Odessa region, but the court of appeal and the Supreme Court left the decision of the court of first instance without changes.
10. Three poachers were caught in the Ladyzhinsky reservoir. These residents of the Gaysinsky community managed to catch 1027 copies of crucian carp, carp, pike perch, silver carp, bream and other species. Pre -caused by the aquatic ecosystem, the damage is almost 1.7 million UAH.
Photo: vin.gp.gov.ua.
Photo: vin.gp.gov.ua.
Earlier, EcoPolitic told in the digest about exposed bribe takers, a criminal group of “black loggers” and an illegal dump of household waste with an area of 3 hectares, which was arranged by a local official.
