Thousands of trees were cut down in the Carpathians, and the case has gone to court
In the Ivano-Frankivsk region, prosecutors are seeking nearly 387 million hryvnias in damages over deforestation in the Hutsulshchyna National Nature Park. According to the investigation, more than 9,000 trees were cut down under the guise of sanitary logging without the necessary permits and approvals. Responsibility is now being assigned to the state enterprise “Forests of Ukraine,” into which the relevant forestry enterprise was later merged. This was reported by the Office of the Prosecutor General.
Thousands of trees were cut down in the Carpathians, and the case has gone to court.
The Ivano-Frankivsk Regional Prosecutor’s Office has filed a lawsuit with the commercial court against the state enterprise “Forests of Ukraine,” seeking compensation of nearly 387 million hryvnias in damages, which investigators say resulted from large-scale illegal logging within the park.
Law enforcement officials established that from April to December 2022, the former Kuty Forestry enterprise cut down more than 9,000 trees in the Yablunivske and Berezivske forest districts. These are valuable areas of the protected nature reserve fund, where any activities must be strictly controlled and properly authorized.
According to the investigation, the trees were cut under the pretext of so-called sanitary forest maintenance, but the required approvals were not obtained. In particular, no permits were issued by the relevant ministry, the regional environmental authority, or the scientific and technical council of the national park. In documents, these works were classified as thinning or forest restructuring, which formally allowed restrictions to be bypassed.
In 2022, the State Forest Resources Agency decided to liquidate the Kuty Forestry enterprise and merge it into the structure of “Forests of Ukraine.” Later, a branch called the “Carpathian Forest Office” was created within the state enterprise system, which subsequently assumed the assets and property of the previous institution. In October 2024, according to investigators, this structure fully absorbed all rights and obligations of the Kuty forestry. That is why the prosecutor’s office is now seeking compensation from “Forests of Ukraine” as the legal successor.
Separately, officials of the former forestry enterprise are also involved in the case — criminal proceedings have been opened against them, and they will be tried separately. Law enforcement notes that the scale of the logging and the lack of permits may indicate systemic violations of natural resource management rules in the region.
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