Cutting down forests and making money: "black loggers" in the Mykolaiv region exposed, causing hundreds of thousands in damages

In the Mykolaiv district, law enforcement officers exposed two local residents who for several months illegally cut down valuable tree species and sold the timber. According to preliminary estimates, their actions caused environmental damage totaling more than 800 thousand hryvnias. This was reported on the 31 March 2026 on the Mykolaiv Region Police website.

The investigation established that residents of the Mishkovo-Pohorilivska community, men aged 39 and 23 years used chainsaws to fell ashes, oaks and acacias. They worked systematically — the harvested timber was prepared for further sale. Police caught them during another illegal logging operation. After that, law enforcement carried out sanctioned searches at the suspects’ places of residence. As a result of the searches, chainsaws were seized, as well as timber already prepared for sale. In addition, a plant-based substance in a semi-dry and shredded form was found on the 39-year-old man.

Both men have now been notified of suspicion. For the committed crime they face up to seven years’ imprisonment.

Earlier we wrote:

• “It bothers me” as a sentence for a tree: a green catastrophe — by the hands of Mykolaiv residents?
• Forest into firewood, conscience to zero: Mykolaiv residents to be tried for tree felling
• 182 oaks under the axe: Mykolaiv residents demand Senkevych’s resignation over the “green slaughter” and prepare an aspen stake
• At Bohoyavlensky — giant logging: 182 trees to be cut down for the sake of OKKO gas station, ATB and an auto shop
• “They were in the way”: in garages in Korabelnyi two walnut trees were cut down and garbage burned — fine 8,900 hryvnias