Over 40 people convicted of illegal logging in Ukraine this year

Forty-three organizers of illegal logging schemes, including high-ranking officials of state forestry enterprises, have been convicted in Ukraine since the beginning of this year, Ukraine's SBU State Security Service has told Ukrinform.

"The illegal activities of the perpetrators caused hundreds of millions of hryvnias worth of damage to the state," the report said.

In addition, according to SBU materials, seven organized groups engaged in illegal logging and wholesale trade were neutralized.

The SBU recalled that during a special operation in the Kirovohrad, Cherkasy and Rivne regions it blocked the activity of an interregional criminal group. It included officials of the territorial division of the State Forest Resources Agency of Ukraine and representatives of several commercial entities engaged in timber exports.

It was established that the culprits illegally exported large loads of valuable species of trees and lumber. The group's members caused more than UAH 200 million worth of damage to the state.

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