The mayor of Kovel was charged and suspended from office pending the investigation
A court has suspended Kovel Mayor Ihor Chaika from office until October 19, 2026. He had previously been notified of being suspected of official negligence, which, according to investigators, caused serious consequences. The criminal case concerns the expansion and construction of the city cemetery.
The court issued this ruling as part of the criminal investigation being conducted by the Investigative Department of the Main Directorate of the National Police in Volyn Oblast. On August 19, Ihor Chaika was notified that he was suspected of violating Part 2 of Article 367 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine—official negligence resulting in serious consequences.
The court has now decided to suspend him from his position as mayor of Kovel through October 19, 2026. According to “Suspilne,” the case is related to the expansion of the city cemetery. This was reported by Taras Yakovlev, the first deputy mayor of Kovel. According to him, the city had been trying to expand the cemetery for about ten years. Eventually, the government approved a change in the land plot’s designated use, after which a construction project was developed in Kovel.
Investigators believe that trees were improperly removed during the preparation of the site. As a result, according to law enforcement, the state suffered losses. “For 10 years in a row, Kovel has been trying to expand the cemetery. We finally obtained a decision from the Cabinet of Ministers to change the land’s designated use and developed a construction project. The charges stem from the fact that investigators believe trees were improperly uprooted there, causing financial losses to the state,” Yakovlev explained.
At the same time, Ihor Chaika disagrees with the charges and the court’s decision. The mayor recorded a video statement in which he declared that he would appeal his suspension. According to Chaika, he is accused of official negligence for having signed a decision by the city council’s executive committee.
The mayor emphasized that the executive committee did not issue special permits for tree felling. According to him, the decision merely regulated the relationship between two municipal enterprises—“Kovelteplo” and “Dobrobut.” “Although the executive committee is not authorized to issue special permits and its decision merely regulated the relationship between the two municipal enterprises—granting ‘Kovelteplo’ permission to harvest timber on this plot, and the municipal enterprise “Dobrobut” to ensure the free transfer of this wood to the heating plants’ boiler rooms for the purpose of economical natural gas consumption and the smooth operation of the heating season in the city,” Chaika stated.
He asserts that the decision concerned economic and social issues, not a permit for logging. According to the mayor, the document went through all the necessary approvals, and all members of the executive committee unanimously supported it. Chaika also explained that he signed the decision not as a sole decision-maker, but as an official certifying the decision of a collegial body. “I signed it not as an individual holding authority, but as a person authorized by law to affix my signature to the decision of a collective body,” he noted.
According to him, after being harvested, the timber was transferred for use by the city’s heating utilities. The “Dobrobut” municipal enterprise transferred it to the “Kovelteplo” municipal enterprise, which used the timber for its own needs and compensated the previous land user—the Kovel-based company “Slat Tour”—for the resulting losses. Chaika asserts that the amount of these damages was agreed upon by both enterprises. He also emphasized that all the harvested timber remained the property of the community. According to him, it was recorded on “Kovelteplo’s” balance sheet and stored at the enterprise’s boiler rooms.
“Furthermore, all the harvested timber is on the balance sheet of the heating network company ‘Kovelteplo,’ accounted for and stored at the company’s boiler rooms. In other words, it remained the property of the community,” said the mayor. Ihor Chaika is currently on leave. For the time being, he cannot perform his duties as mayor due to a court ruling.
Meanwhile, the investigation into the case continues. The court will ultimately determine the appropriate response to the officials’ actions. Ihor Chaika himself has stated that he will appeal the decision to remove him from office. This is stated in the court’s ruling.
