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Damage incurred to Ukraine budget is estimated at nearly UAH 30 million (US$1.2 million).
Law enforcers in Ukraine's Kherson region have halted the illegal use of Ukraine's mineral resources by the occupying authorities in Russian-annexed Crimea, who had conspired with managers of one of the Kyiv-based enterprises.
In particular, the so-called "authorities" used a pump station located in Kherson region to supply raw materials (brine) to a plant located in the occupied peninsula.
"During the pre-trial investigation, it was established that the occupying authorities in the Crimean peninsula illegally used a pumping station located in Kherson region's Novotroitskyi district via managers of one of the Kyiv-based enterprises. In violation of the current legislation, the station provided PJSC Soda Crimea Plant, which operates in the occupied Crimea, with raw materials in the form of conditioned brine from the Syvash Lake," head of the Main Directorate of the National Police in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol Vitaliy Stryzhak said.
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According to Stryzhak, the damage incurred to the state budget is estimated at nearly UAH 30 million (US$1.2 million). Crimean police investigators are conducting a pre-trial investigation into criminal proceedings opened on the fact of illegal extraction of Ukraine's mineral resources.
Strizhak also added that on November 27, investigators of the Main Directorate of the National Police in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol, as well as employees of the SBU Security Service of Ukraine and the prosecutor's office of Crimea, representatives of the Kherson Regional State Administration, Khersonoblenergo, and the Representative Office of the President of Ukraine in Crimea raided premises of the pumping station.
"During the investigation, it was revealed that six industrial pumps located at pumping station were used to supply raw materials to the soda plant. Law enforcers also found a power line that illegally supplied electricity from the occupied Crimea to the said pumping station," Stryzhak said.
Searches were also conducted at the enterprise in Kyiv, where law enforcers seized paperwork of Russian representatives in the occupied peninsula.
Probe is under way under four articles of the Criminal Code of Ukraine: Article 441 (Ecocide), Part 1 of Article 241 (Air Pollution), Part 2 of Article 240 (Violation of rules related to the protection of mineral resources), and Part 2 of Article 364 (Abuse of authority or office). Suspects may face up to 15 years in prison.
According to the Ukrainian online newspaper Ukrayinska Pravda, this refers to Kyiv-based Geomonitoring LLC.
PJSC Crimean Soda Plant is part of Ostchem holding, which consolidates all chemical assets of Ukrainian oligarch Dmytro Firtash's Group DF.