EcoPolitic has gathered for its readers the 6 most significant cases of environmental damage, which the press services of prosecutors' offices and the State Bureau of Investigation (SBI) published during the week of May 31-June 6.
1. SBI officers served a notice of suspicion to the former head of the Main Department of the State Emergency Service of Ukraine in Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast. He organized illegal logging on the territory of a nature reserve fund worth more than UAH 7 million.
Photo: dbr.gov.ua.
In August 2023, under the guise of conducting forest firefighting exercises, the official involved more than 100 subordinates in illegal logging. The felling was carried out on a 112.1-hectare plot of land on the territory of the Black Forest general zoological reserve.
Photo: dbr.gov.ua.
The defendant was served a notice of suspicion under Part 3 of Article 365 and Part 4 of Article 246 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine (abuse of power or official authority by a law enforcement officer, which caused grave consequences, and illegal felling or transportation, storage, or sale of timber, which also led to grave consequences). He now faces up to 10 years in prison.
2. Prosecutors in the Supreme Court succeeded in returning a forest plot in the Illinetska community of Vinnytsia Oblast from an unfair lease. The company had illegally built a recreation center there: a two-story hotel and 10 separate houses.
Photo: vin.gp.gov.ua.
Photo: vin.gp.gov.ua.
The then-head of the Vinnytsia Regional Forestry and Hunting Department was involved in this illegal deal. His son-in-law is one of the founders of the tenant company. The former official was notified of suspicion under Part 2 of Article 364 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine. The trial is currently ongoing.
Photo: vin.gp.gov.ua.
3. In Zhytomyr region, members of a criminal group who dumped contaminated wastewater into the river and embezzled funds intended for its treatment will be brought to trial. The organizer was a co-owner of a business company. He involved a number of officials of a private enterprise specializing in wastewater treatment in the city of Berdychiv in the illegal activity.
In the second half of 2024, under the guise of raising money for high-quality wastewater treatment, they misappropriated UAH 5.8 million of budget funds and discharged untreated wastewater into the Hnylopyat River.
The company's employees deliberately failed to treat the wastewater and conspired to conceal the facts of its discharge into the water body. This caused damage to the river's flora and fauna worth more than UAH 8 million.
4. The captain of a Russian oil tanker, which in December 2024 was transporting 4 thousand tons of M-100 fuel oil from Volgograd to the port of Kavkaz, was notified of suspicion. The defendant did not take into account the weather conditions in the Azov and Black Seas, as well as in the Kerch Strait, which led to the accident. It caused a leak of 1,500 tons of fuel oil into Ukraine's inland and territorial waters.
Photo: zap.gp.gov.ua.
Oil pollution at sea caused damage to living resources and caused the state losses of more than UAH 20 billion.
Photo: zap.gp.gov.ua.
5. In Ivano-Frankivsk region, a forester of one of the forestries of the state enterprise “Forests of Ukraine” is suspected of abuse of office and illegal felling of trees in the territory of the nature reserve fund, which caused serious consequences.
Investigators found that the official exceeded his authority and approved the illegal felling of trees in the Hutsulshchyna National Nature Park.
As a result, in March-April 2022, more than 220 trees of various species were illegally cut down in his forestry. The wood was loaded onto 4 trucks and taken away for people who did not have any permits for it.
Photo: ifr.gp.gov.ua.
In this way, the suspected forester caused damage worth UAH 25.2 million.
6. Three members of an organized group in Khmelnytskyi region will have to stand trial for illegal extraction of groundwater worth UAH 22 million. The head of a private enterprise organized a scheme for the illegal extraction of artesian water, bottling it and selling it for enrichment.
Photo: khmel.gp.gov.ua.
His company previously had a permit for groundwater extraction, but it was revoked in 2024. Despite this, the accomplices continued to work. They caused environmental damage in the amount of UAH 22.4 million.
Law enforcement officers caught the suspects red-handed in November last year.
Photo: khmel.gp.gov.ua.
Now they face up to 8 years behind bars.
Read about the case in which SBI specialists managed to prevent illegal logging of high-class business timber by foresters under the guise of dead and damaged trees worth more than UAH 6.5 million in last week's EcoPolitics digest.
