Searches at State Border Guard Service Underway

Searches are being carried out in the Kyiv office of the State Border Guard Service on Tuesday morning, August 16, in the case of deforestation near the state border in Transcarpathia, sources have informed Ukrayinska Pravda.

According to their information, the searches are carried out by military prosecutors and KORD special police force. During the maintenance works on the state border, 30 km of valuable forest with total worth of $1.5 million was allegedly cut and taken to Slovakia. The maintenance plan did not include tree cutting.

In a comment to Ukrayinska Pravda, spokesperson for the State Border Guard Service Oleh Slobodian said: "Such actions [of the prosecutors] look like they are putting on a show, because the detectives had entry permits issued in advance, so they didn’t have to break in. We have been collaborating with the investigators on this criminal case, because it is in our interest that the investigation is objective."

Slobodian added that just recently the State Border Guard Service has submitted to the prosecutors the results of the internal investigation of the matter.

Source: Oksana Kovalenko, Ukrayinska Pravda