Under the procedural guidance of the prosecutors of the Specialized Environmental Prosecutor’s Office of the General Prosecutor’s Office in Zhytomyr Oblast a scheme of illegal use of land contaminated with radiation has been exposed.
The investigation established that in 2021, the village head, acting in collusion with the land manager and the heads of four enterprises, transferred 1,790 hectares of land located in the zone of radioactive contamination to them for use.
Despite the fact that this territory belongs to the zone of unconditional resettlement, which can only be disposed of by the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine, the official concluded preliminary lease agreements and deeds of acceptance and transfer. In the future, farms used these lands for the cultivation of agricultural crops, their collection and sale, including for bread processing plants. Experts estimated losses to the state in 2021 at more than 4.9 million hryvnias.
In addition, the director of one of the companies created an organized group, to which he involved the manager of another company and a deputy of the village council. They grew 364.77 tons of sunflower worth more than 6.6 million hryvnias on the arbitrarily occupied plots, which were illegally taken out of the resettlement zone and sold on the domestic market.
The village head of one of the territorial communities of the region, the land manager of the village council, and three directors of private enterprises were informed of the suspicion of arbitrary occupation of land plots and abuse of official position (Part 2 of Article 28, Part 1 of Article 197-1, Part 2 of Article 364 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine). The directors of two companies and a former deputy of the village council are also suspected of violating radiation safety requirements, taking possession of property and legalizing property obtained by crime (Part 5 of Article 191, Part 3 of Article 209, Part 3 of Article 28, Part 4 of Article 267-1 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine).
Currently, the issue of selecting preventive measures for the suspects and imposing an arrest on their property in order to ensure compensation for damages to the state is being resolved. The pre-trial investigation is conducted by the Main Directorate of the National Police of Ukraine under the operational support of the Department for Ensuring Activities Related to Dangerous Materials of the National Police.
