MOSCOW, March 28. /TASS/. Ukraine's State Bureau of Investigations (SBI) has revealed a criminal scheme involving the illegal logging of century-old oaks within the territory of the Chernobyl Reserve, resulting in losses to the government amounting to nearly 60 mln hryvnias ($1.5 mln), the agency's Telegram channel reported.
According to the SBI, the investigation found that the head of state-owned enterprise Northern Forest, owned by the Chernobyl Reserve, "organized illegal logging of 185 oaks in the Denisovetsky forestry in December 2023." To carry out this plan, he recruited three civilians, issuing them special permits to enter the reserve. A certain law enforcement officer was also implicated in the criminal scheme.
"The accomplices transported the [poached] timber to one of the capital's timber reception points, where it was sold based on fictitious documents. The total losses incurred by the government amount to over 59 mln hryvnias," the agency noted.
The suspects in the case have been charged with illegal logging and collusion to engage in trafficking in poached timber, which carries a sentence of up to seven years in prison. During searches, more than 350 cubic meters of timber were seized, which the perpetrators had not managed to sell.
On April 26, 1986, the largest nuclear disaster in history occurred at the fourth reactor of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, resulting in radioactive contamination of over 200,000 square kilometers of the territory of the USSR. A 30-kilometer exclusion zone was established around the plant, decontamination work was carried out at the plant, and all reactors were shut down. Immediately after the accident, a protective sarcophagus was erected over the fourth reactor. In 2016, another dome was built over it, known as the New Safe Confinement, which was put into operation a few years later.
The Chernobyl Radiation and Environmental Biosphere Reserve was established in 2016 within the Chernobyl exclusion zone to preserve flora and fauna, stabilize hydrological regimes, rehabilitate radiation-contaminated lands, and conduct scientific research. The reserve covers an area of almost 227,000 hectares, or two-thirds of the territory of the exclusion zone.