March 24, 2025, 12:07 p.m.
(PHOTO: Biznesprost)
A court has seized the property of a company accused of illegal granite mining in Mykolaiv region. The investigation focuses on the activities of officials of the Voznesenskaya Trade and Industrial Company, which continued to work at the Trykratnenskoye deposit after the license was revoked.
According to the decision of the Bratsk District Court, back in 2006, the company received a subsoil use permit that allowed it to mine granite on an area of 77.65 hectares near the village of Trykraty. However, in 2023, the Mykolaiv District Administrative Court ruled to revoke this permit, terminating the company's right to extract minerals.
Nevertheless, in May 2024, company officials deliberately organized blasting operations with the participation of a licensed contractor, SE NPO Pavlohrad Chemical Plant. The quarry development work continued.
In early March 2025, investigative actions took place in two places at once: the blasting contract, applications for blasting, the mining plan for 2024, financial documents and cash orders were seized from the company's office. Also, on a leased land plot within the Oleksandrivska community, they found records of granite production and sales, transport logs, waybills, and trucks used to transport raw materials.
Investigators believe that all of these documents contain evidence of the organization of illegal mining, accumulation and sale of granite products at a time when the company had no right to do so. Therefore, the Voznesensk District Prosecutor's Office filed a motion with the court to seize property related to the illegal granite mining.
The court granted the prosecutor's motion and ordered the seizure of the property in the framework of criminal proceedings initiated under Article 364 (2) (abuse of power or position) and Article 240 (4) (violation of subsoil use rules) of the Criminal Code of Ukraine.
The investigation is ongoing and law enforcement officers are identifying all those involved in the illegal mining. If the officials of Voznesenskaya Trade and Industrial Company are found guilty, they face criminal liability, including imprisonment.
The court also imposed a pre-trial restraint on a woman involved in illegal groundwater extraction. She acted as part of a criminal group organized by a former city council member. According to the investigation, the organized group illegally extracted groundwater in Mykolaiv region. The extracted water was packaged and sold to residents as legal products.
Earlier, the Mykolaiv branch of the State Enterprise "Forests of Ukraine" launched an internal investigation against a forester who had not noticed an illegal sand quarry in the forest for two years. Environmental activists discovered illegal sand mining near the village of Mykhailo-Laryne in the Voskresenska community, where black diggers dug a huge pit.
Анна Бальчінос