Illegal logging worth over 5 million hryvnias uncovered in a national park in Bukovina
Law enforcement officials have uncovered a scheme involving the illegal harvesting of timber under the guise of sanitary logging within the Vyzhnytskyi National Nature Park. The former foreman of the Berehomet Forestry has already been notified of charges of abuse of authority and illegal logging in a protected area.
This was reported by the Chernivtsi Regional Prosecutor’s Office. The investigation established that in October 2024, the official organized the felling of at least 28 trees, coordinating the work of individuals without the necessary permits.
In addition to destroying trees designated for logging, the organizers of the scheme cut down plants that were not subject to removal at all. To increase the volume of logging in the national park, they illegally built a forest road, which resulted in additional destruction of the forest without any permits. To conceal the offenses, the suspects uprooted stumps and covered them with soil to make it look like routine maintenance work. As a result of these actions, the state suffered losses amounting to over 5 million UAH.
A pre-trial investigation is currently underway to establish all the circumstances of the crime and bring those responsible to justice. Law enforcement officials are charging the suspect with actions that caused serious consequences for the region’s nature reserve fund. Prosecutors from the Specialized Environmental Prosecutor’s Office are overseeing the proceedings in the case regarding the illegal exploitation of forest resources. The destruction of valuable trees within the national park has become the subject of a detailed investigation by specialized agencies.
In 2024, law enforcement officials in the Chernivtsi region exposed a former chief forester—the first deputy director of the state enterprise “Berehomet Forestry and Hunting Enterprise”—who organized the illegal felling of trees in the Vyzhnytskyi National Nature Park.
Ihor Litsur, executive director of the state-owned enterprise “Forests of Ukraine,” declared an annual salary of nearly 19 million hryvnias, as well as significant additional income and cash savings. At the same time, his declaration includes real estate purchased at prices that significantly differ from market rates. Separately, the official had previously been suspected of official negligence.
Also in Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast, the prosecutor’s office is seeking through the courts to recover nearly 387 million hryvnias in damages caused by logging in the “Hutsulshchyna” National Park. The investigation claims that under the guise of sanitary work, over 9,000 trees were destroyed there without the necessary permits and approvals. Now, authorities are attempting to hold the state-owned enterprise “Forests of Ukraine” responsible, to which the relevant forestry enterprise was later merged.
