Letters were sent to the Ministry of Ecology demanding the dismissal of the management of the Tuzly Estuaries National Park due to poaching and wastefulness

The Ministry of Environmental Protection and Natural Resources has received official letters from local authorities in Odesa region demanding the dismissal of the management of the Tuzly Estuaries National Park. Among the reasons are poaching and wastefulness, UNN reports.

As UNN previously reported , during the war, the management of this national park spends more than UAH 5.5 million a year, 97% of which is the salaries of 45 employees.

In March, the management of the national park did not allow state auditors to enter the territory to check their activities, including the illegal use of budget funds. The auditors initiated criminal proceedings.

"The auditors were to check the information received at the end of last year in a deputy's appeal to the Southern Office of the State Audit Service regarding possible inefficient or illegal use of budget funds allocated to the Tuzly Estuaries National Park. The Office of the Security Service of Ukraine in Odesa Oblast also appealed to the state auditors regarding the need for such an audit," the auditors noted.

The Southern Office of the State Audit Service sent a notice of criminal offense in accordance with Article 3511 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine to the Main Department of the National Police in Odesa Oblast.

In addition, in May, police discovered mass poaching on the territory of the national park - 11 pieces of blunted fishing gear, from which more than 100 kg of fish were released.

The letters to the ministry, which are available to UNN , emphasize that the management of the Tuzly Estuaries NP does not fulfill its main function - the protection of natural resources in the territory entrusted to them.

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For almost 10 years, the Tuzly Estuaries NP has been run by the same people because the ministry has been unable to hold a competition. Since 2017, Iryna Vykhrystiuk has been the acting director, replacing Ivan Rusev, who she had worked for as a deputy.

Vasyl Reznichenko, head of the Lyman territorial community bordering the national park, says he has repeatedly asked the Ministry of Ecology to send a working group to their area so that the authorities can hear the problems of ordinary residents related to the national park.

"I have repeatedly suggested to the entire management, and in particular to the Ministry of Ecology, that they send a working group to talk to the community residents and hear our opinion. Not about the national park, but about its management. This is a long-term war - everyone is tired of it - constant courts, constant disputes, clashes," says the head of the community.

In his last declaration for 2023, acting director Vykhrystiuk states that he has neither real estate nor a car - nothing but a single salary of almost UAH 305 thousand per year. However, it is unlikely that such information about the lack of housing can be true if a person is not officially registered as homeless. It is also known that in 2012 she unsuccessfully ran for the Verkhovna Rada from the Our Ukraine - People's Self-Defense bloc. On her Facebook page, Vykhrystiuk posts critical postsaddressed to the President's party.