Case on bribe of $25,000 for 13 hectares to hunters sent to court

Employees of the State Bureau of Investigation have sent to court a case of illegal transactions by the now former head of the Southern Interregional Forestry and Hunting Department of the State Forestry Agency.

According to the SBI press service, the case concerns the resolution of land issues.

According to the investigation, the official demanded money from the regional organization of the Ukrainian Society of Hunters and Fishermen for assistance in increasing the territory of their hunting grounds by 13,000 hectares in Odesa region. These areas were used by the state enterprise "Forests of Ukraine". The defendant promised to resolve the issue in all instances in favor of the organization in exchange for USD 25 thousand.

The head of the department has now been dismissed from his position. He is in custody and is accused of promising to influence the decision-making of a person authorized to perform state functions for the provision of an unlawful benefit for himself.

Since the approval procedure had several stages, this is how the official justified the amount of the unlawful benefit. According to him, he had to give part of the money to his friends from the management of the State Forestry Agency and the state enterprise "Forests of Ukraine".

If found guilty, the man faces a fine of two thousand to five thousand five hundred tax-free minimum incomes or imprisonment for a term of two to five years.

Environmental prosecutors of the Odesa Regional Prosecutor's Office served a notice of suspicion to the former head of the Southern Interregional Forestry and Hunting Department of extortion of an undue benefit on a particularly large scale in January 2026.

Кирило Бойко