May 26, 2025, 11:07 a.m.
The Tarutino District Court of Odesa Region found a Sarata native guilty of illegal appropriation of the surface layer of water fund lands on a particularly large scale and fined him UAH 17,000.
According to the court' s verdict, the man was also banned from engaging in activities related to the removal and transfer of soil cover from land plots for a period of one year.
The man unauthorizedly dug a pond near the Chiligider River and filled it with its waters. The area where the pond was arranged belongs to the water fund. According to the State Ecological Inspectorate, the man removed the soil layer on a 0.1782-hectare plot, seizing more than 6.3 thousand cubic meters of land.
The defendant pleaded guilty to the criminal offense in full and confirmed the circumstances set out in the indictment, namely that he had bought a house in Mykolaivka village, Bolhrad district, Odesa region, and dug an artificial pond for fish farming within the household's land plot.
Investigators sent the indictment in this case to court in February.
This is not the only such case in Odesa Oblast. In April, a resident of the Stryukivska community in the Berezivskyi district of Odesa region was served a notice of suspicion of illegal appropriation of the surface (soil) layer of water fund lands on a particularly large scale. While establishing the circumstances of the incident, officers of the territorial police unit found out that a 44-year-old local resident was involved. Without any permits, he dug a lake on the water fund lands owned by the community to breed fish for his own needs.
Earlier, a farmer from Izmail district was accused of unauthorized seizure of a land plot near Lake Katlabukh in Odesa region. The agronomist was interested in the land plot. He decided to cultivate and plant it without having any land permits.
In addition, a farmer from Tarutyn community in Odesa region was sent to the dock. The 51-year-old man blocked the Anchokrak River with a dam to ensure better water supply to his land plot where he grew melon. He hired a worker to drive a tractor and plow the area designated by his employer.
Кирило Бойко