Prosecutors of the Rivne Regional Prosecutor's Office have sent an indictment to the court regarding a forest master and two of his accomplices who were cutting down trees in the territory of the nature reserve fund.

The investigation established that an official from the Dubno forestry of the "Polissya Forest Office" branch of the State Enterprise "Forests of Ukraine" identified pine and oak trees for illegal cutting in the areas entrusted to him, including within the boundaries of the reserve. His accomplice was responsible for the felling and delivery of logs to the sawmill, while the owner of the sawmill, the third participant in the organized group, ensured the processing and sale of the timber.

The "business" operated for six months, and the members of the group caused damage amounting to almost 1 million UAH. During the investigation, they fully reimbursed this amount to the budget.

The actions of the offenders were qualified as illegal logging of trees in the territory of the nature reserve fund, their transportation and storage, which caused severe consequences, committed repeatedly and by an organized group (part 3 of article 28, part 4 of article 246 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine). In addition, the official is also charged with exceeding official powers, which also caused severe consequences (part 3 of article 365 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine).

The forest master has already been dismissed from his position.

The pre-trial investigation was conducted by investigators from the third investigative department (located in Rivne) of the Territorial Administration of the State Bureau of Investigations, based in Khmelnytskyi, with operational support from the Security Service of Ukraine in the Rivne region and the Main Investigation Department of the National Police of Ukraine.

Note: according to article 62 of the Constitution of Ukraine, a person is presumed innocent of committing a crime and cannot be subjected to criminal punishment until their guilt is proven in a lawful manner and established by a guilty verdict of the court.