The Specialized Environmental Prosecutorʼs Office has announced more than 20 suspicions in cases of illegal logging. In total, 40 suspicions have been announced in recent weeks. The defendants in the cases caused losses of UAH 167 million.
This was reported by Prosecutor General Ruslan Kravchenko.
According to him, the largest scheme was organized by employees of the state enterprises "Forests of Ukraine" and LIAC. 50 searches were conducted in this case. Suspicion was declared against eight employees of "LIAC" and five — "Forests of Ukraine", the organizer and three members of the criminal organization were detained.
Investigators found out that an employee of LIAC, at the request of employees of the Forests of Ukraine, changed information in the Unified State Electronic Timber Accounting System: deleted documents on the origin of wood, understated its volume, and changed the quality class. During 2021-2024, he made more than 10 thousand such changes. One change cost from UAH 5 to 30 thousand. Law enforcement officers documented more than UAH 10 million of illegal profit. The largest number of violations occurred in the Volyn, Rivne, Zhytomyr, and Kyiv regions.
In total, in recent weeks, the environmental prosecutorʼs office has announced more than 40 suspicions, 21 of which are against employees of the State Enterprise "Forests of Ukraine", two of the defendants were arrested. The court chose the following preventive measures:
- to the Director General of the State Enterprise "Forests of Ukraine" (illegal enrichment);
- to the former director of the Kostopil Forestry Enterprise (enrichment and false declaration of property).
Suspicions were raised:
- director and engineer of the "Turiysky Forestry" for illegally cutting down 409 trees;
- forester of the Svydovetske forestry for logging in the reserve fund;
- Director of the State Enterprise "Dniprovske Forestry" for inaction, which led to the destruction of the forest in the landscape park;
- employee of the State Enterprise "Grozynske" and head of the LLC for organizing illegal logging in the Zhytomyr region;
- four directors of forestry enterprises in the Lviv region for issuing illegal logging permits for over 9 500 trees;
- forester of the Lazeshchyna Forestry Department for assistance in the illegal felling of almost 3 400 trees.
In 2025, prosecutors filed over 300 lawsuits for the return of 7 511 hectares of forest. The amount of damage is UAH 351 million. 175 hectares have already been returned to the state.
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