On Thursday, police officers are conducting investigative actions in the premises of the Chernihiv City Council in a case of illegal land allocation.
This was reported by the press service of the National Police of the region.
"Authorised searches are being conducted in the premises of the city council, a utility company, a commercial structure and the residences of its leaders. Based on the results of the investigative actions, procedural decisions will be made," the statement said.
According to the report, the operatives established the fact of illegal alienation of land of the city's territorial community, which led to significant losses.
"Officials, without holding an auction, as provided by law, granted the company a free right to develop (superficies) a communal land plot. A petrol station was subsequently built on this land plot," the statement said.
Criminal proceedings were opened over the abuse of office by the officials (Part 2 of Article 364 of the Criminal Code).
The acting mayor of Chernihiv and secretary of the city council, Oleksandr Lomako, sees the actions of law enforcement officers as political pressure to paralyse the work of the city council. He said that people with machine guns broke into the city council building on Thursday.
"It turned out that it was the security forces who broke in with a ruling that they needed documents from seven years ago for 2017. On this basis, armed men physically blocked the work of the entire city council," he wrote on Facebook.
"Instead of receiving the documents they need upon written request, a group of law enforcement officers are searching my office and the rest of the city council premises," Lomako added.