Video: Members of an organized criminal group will stand trial in Transcarpathia for cutting down a protected forest

In Zakarpattia, an indictment has been filed against the organizer and three members of an organized criminal group who illegally cut down 174 trees worth nearly 6 million hryvnias. Some of the trees were growing on land designated as a nature reserve, and the harvested timber was processed into firewood and sold to local residents and businesses.

To maintain secrecy, the suspects used vehicles without license plates and set up camera traps along their route. In August, the group members were notified of the charges against them, with one of them being charged in absentia. The defendants now face up to seven years in prison.

Source: National Police.

Earlier, a court found a forester employed by a municipal enterprise of the Teofipol Village Council guilty of attempting to illegally appropriate oak timber worth nearly 400,000 hryvnias.

The Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine adopted a resolution allowing, for the duration of martial law and for 12 months following its conclusion, timber harvested during sanitary logging to be excluded from the harvesting limits for main-use logging.