Law enforcement officers are conducting searches at the Department of Urban Planning and Architecture of Kyiv City State Administration, the press service of Kyiv City Prosecutor's Office said on Thursday.

"Kyiv City Prosecutor's Office, together with the Strategic Investigations Department in Kyiv, conducts searches at the Department of Urban Planning and Architecture, an executive body of Kyiv City Council [Kyiv City State Administration], heads of the Department and 'related' persons in the framework of criminal proceedings, initiated on the facts of power abuse for the approval and issuance of permissive documents," the report said.

It is noted that in the course of the pretrial investigation, the investigators check facts of probable power abuse by individual officials of the Department of Urban Planning and Architecture, as well as a number of individuals and legal entities which activities are related to the provision of services in the field of urban planning and architecture, when considering applications and issuing urban planning terms and restrictions to carry out work on the construction or reconstruction of real estate on the territory of Kyiv and other documents of a permissive nature.

"On May 13, 2021, on the basis of court orders, searches are carried out in the premises of the Department of Urban Development and Architecture, an executive body of Kyiv City Council, and at the place of residence of the heads of the department and 'related' persons in order to find evidence and record information about the circumstances of the commission of criminal offenses," the law enforcement officers said.

Later they added that to date, according to the results of the investigative actions, notifications of suspicion have already been handed over to 11 persons, including current employees of the departments of Kyiv City State Administration, municipal and contracting enterprises, including managers.

Earlier this day, it was reported that the capital's law enforcement officers were conducting searches at the members of the criminal group, who, together with officials of Kyiv City State Administration, organized systematic extortion and receipt of funds from business entities for illegal lease of retail outlets in underground passages in the central districts of Kyiv.

On May 12, Kyiv City Prosecutor's Office reported on searches in several departments of Kyiv City State Administration and municipal companies in six unrelated criminal cases at once, in some of them with the Tax Police, in some with the National Police.