The SBU uncovered an official of Buryn city council involved in a large-scale destruction of the protective forest strip along the tracks in Sumy region.

According to the pre-trail investigation, at the behest of the chief of the City Council executive committee in 2019, the green spaces that protect traffic links on a busiest highway section were illegally destroyed. As a result, the trees were cut down on an area of almost half a hectare.

The experts say that the general amount of losses caused to JSC Ukrzaliznytsia is almost UAH 2 million (USD 74,000).

The official received a notice of suspicion of committing a crime within a criminal proceeding initiated for abuse of authority or office and for illegal deforestation or illegal transportation, storage, sale of forests, if caused grave consequences.

Investigation is ongoing. The SBU is verifying the involvement of other officials of City Council in the illegal activity.

The operation was conducted jointly with the National Police under the legal supervision of Konotop local Prosecutor’s Office.