For three years, clay was illegally mined on the grounds of the "Dniester Canyon" Landscape Park. According to law enforcement officials, the mastermind behind the crime is the director of a local brick-manufacturing company.
According to the Ternopil Regional Prosecutor’s Office, charges against the company’s director have already been filed in court.
The nature of the crime
The defendant organized an illegal clay pit in the Chortkiv district of the Ternopil region. Clay was extracted directly from the lands of the nature reserve fund—between 2019 and 2021, over 2,000 cubic meters of raw material were removed from the ground.
No permits were obtained for the work—neither mining concession agreements nor special permits for subsoil use. However, this did not prevent the offender from launching large-scale mining operations using specialized equipment.
Source: Ternopil Regional Prosecutor's Office
Sale of seized property
Illegal extraction is not the only crime imputed to the company director. When law enforcement searched the brick factory, they discovered a large batch of bricks. The court subsequently placed these under arrest.
However, further investigation revealed that the accused had illegally sold 360,000 pieces of the seized bricks, despite all prohibitions.
Charges
Prosecutors have already referred the indictment to the court. The company manager is accused of the following crimes:
- illegal extraction of mineral resources (Part 3 of Article 240 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine);
- illegal actions with seized property (Part 1 of Article 388 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine).
EcoPolitic previously reported that, under the guise of geological exploration of subsoil in Volyn region, strategic minerals were illegally extracted. Damages to the state amounted to over 100 million UAH.
