Prosecutors of the Chernivtsi Regional, Specialized Environmental, and district prosecutor's offices have reported suspicions against 15 individuals — from heads of municipal enterprises and village heads to leaders of state enterprises, private firms, and contracting organizations.

The schemes vary, but the handwriting is the same — embezzlement of budget funds, abuse of office, official negligence, and false declaration.

Fraud with budget funds in procurement

The director of the municipal enterprise "Misksvitlo" together with the director of a private company embezzled nearly 2.2 million UAH of budget funds by purchasing lighting equipment at inflated prices.

The former acting head of the trolleybus management purchased electricity at an inflated tariff. The budget losses exceed 1 million UAH.

The former head of the Housing and Communal Services Department of the Chernivtsi City Council, together with the former head of the technical supervision department, embezzled over 3.3 million UAH on the procurement of services for the repair of the runway.

The acting head of the Terbeleche village council embezzled over 250,000 UAH by purchasing repair services for a shelter at an inflated cost.

Violations in the environmental sector

The head of the wastewater treatment service of the municipal enterprise "Chernivtsivodokanal" and five foremen violated the established operating regime of the purification systems, allowing the discharge of contaminated wastewater bypassing the full filtration cycle. The preliminary amount of damages exceeds 2.5 million UAH.

The former director of the "Khotyn" National Nature Park, under the guise of road construction on the territory of the nature reserve fund, approved illegal logging of trees in the park area. The environmental damage amounts to over 320,000 UAH. 

Official negligence

The head of the production control laboratory of a construction company issued a certificate for low-quality concrete, which was used for the capital repair of an international highway. The damages amount to nearly 840,000 UAH.

False declaration

A leading specialist of the Berehomet village council did not declare an apartment in Kyiv worth over 3.2 million UAH in her declarations for 2022–2023.

Documented facts indicate that these are not accidental errors — this is a systematic operation by officials for personal gain.

The total amount of damages caused by criminal offenses exceeds 10 million UAH.

The actions of the suspects have been qualified under Part 5 of Article 191, Part 4 of Article 191, Part 2 of Article 367, Part 4 of Article 246, Part 2 of Article 364, Part 2 of Article 28, Article 236, Part 2 of Article 28, Part 2 of Article 242, Part 1 of Article 366-2 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine.

Requests for the selection of preventive measures and their suspension from office will be sent to the courts.

The pre-trial investigation is being conducted by the Main Directorate of the National Police in the Chernivtsi region, the Territorial Department of the State Bureau of Investigation located in the city of Khmelnytskyi, the Territorial Department of the Bureau of Economic Security in the Chernivtsi region – with operational support from the Security Service of Ukraine in the Chernivtsi region and the regional Department of Strategic Investigations of the National Police of Ukraine.

Note: according to Article 62 of the Constitution of Ukraine, a person is presumed innocent of committing a crime and cannot be subjected to criminal punishment until their guilt is proven in a lawful manner and established by a guilty verdict of the court.