The person suspected of starting fire in the Narcissus Valley may be sent to prison for up to 12 years

With the approval of the prosecutor of the Khust Local Prosecutor’s Office, police investigators indicted a 49-year-old resident of Khust on a charge of the deliberate arson of the Narcissus Valley Nature Research Branch.
In the course of the pre-trial investigation, it was found out that on March 27, 2020, while passing through the reserve territory, the resident of Khust had intentionally set fire to the dry grass and left the crime scene. About 6.5 ha of hayfields burned down then.
The very next day, when he saw that not all, in his opinion, dry grass had burned down, he set fire to the dry grass again. As a result, endangered spring snowflakes were destroyed on the 2.5 hectares of the reserve territory.
The amount of damages inflicted to the Carpathian Biosphere Reserve is almost UAH 650 thousand.
The suspect’s actions are classified under Parts 1, 2 of Article 252 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine – deliberate destruction of the nature reserve fund by arson, which caused grave consequences.
The choice of pre-trial retraint against the suspect is currently being decided.
Reference: The sanction of the said article provides for a sentence in the from of imprisonment for a term of five to twelve years.

Prosecutor’s Office of Transcarpathian region