Results of the Specialized Environmental Prosecutor's Office for 2021

According to Article 50 of the Constitution of Ukraine, everyone has the right to a safe environment for life and health and to compensation for damage caused by violations of this right.

In order to comprehensively respond to offenses in this area and to ensure, within the competence of the prosecutor's offices, the constitutional right to a safe environment, by order of the Attorney General dated 23.04.2021
№ 25shc, the Specialized Environmental Prosecutor's Office was established within the structure of the Office of the Attorney General, with the main tasks being:

• organization and procedural leadership of pre-trial investigations and support of public prosecution in criminal proceedings regarding criminal offenses in the field of environmental protection;
• representation of state interests in court in the field of environmental protection.

In September 2021, specialized environmental prosecutor's offices were established within the regional prosecutor's offices as departments (units) with similar tasks.

The priority of the environmental prosecutor's offices is not only to combat offenses in the field of environmental protection (in particular, illegal subsoil use, poaching, illegal logging, and air pollution, as well as the embezzlement of lands of the nature reserve fund) but also to restore, by defending in court, the situation that existed before the violation, or, if this is not possible, to recover the damage caused to nature.