A billion-dollar feeding trough for a select few: Ukraine officially recognizes systemic corruption in the forestry sector and announces figures

Corruption in Ukraine's forestry sector has become so widespread that law enforcement officials are openly talking about the existence of a centralized system of abuse. Hundreds of criminal proceedings, billions of dollars in damages and suspicions of top officials of the State Enterprise "Forests of Ukraine" confirm that instead of protecting this national wealth, the officials involved have turned the forest into a gold mine for their own enrichment.

EcoPolitic has collected shocking statistics from official bodies on the abuses and frauds of foresters, as well as numerous cases of recent revelations. The figures we have presented will definitely not leave you indifferent. And note that this is only the tip of the iceberg.

The scale is impressive

Oleksiy Sukhachov, director of the State Bureau of Investigation (SBI), told Interfax-Ukraine that his agency is currently working on 587 criminal proceedings related to violations in the forestry sector. Officials of the central office of the state enterprise "Forests of Ukraine" and its branches are involved in a significant number of these cases.

According to the head of the law enforcement agency, in 2023-2025, his subordinates submitted 178 indictments against 298 people to the court. The total amount of damage caused in these criminal proceedings exceeded UAH 1 billion.

“The nature, geography, and number of offenses detected indicate not isolated incidents, but the existence of signs of a centralized, vertically organized system of corruption,” emphasized Oleksiy Sukhachov.

He explained that the main offenses in the forestry sector are as follows:

• transferring enterprise assets to affiliated companies at artificially low prices;
• signing direct contracts worth billions without open tender procedures;
• abuses during auctions for the sale of forest products;
• illegal sanitary logging without the required environmental impact assessments.

“Our goal is to stop the plundering of national wealth. Ukrainian forests are not a source of illicit enrichment for the select few,” added the Director of the SBI.

An endless stream of criminal cases worth millions

EcoPolitic is better informed than anyone else about the number of offending officials from the forestry sector who are being served with suspicions by law enforcement agencies. Every Friday, we prepare a digest of the most significant environmental violations of the week, in which we record various cases based on information from the State Bureau of Investigation and regional prosecutors' offices. So, from our experience, we can say that every week, most of this selection is devoted to illegal logging and corruption in the forestry sector.

For example: in the last 3 weeks alone, the State Bureau of Investigation has announced 9 cases against various foresters for illegal logging and bribery. And this does not include cases reported by the press services of prosecutors.

Here is what forestry officials were accused of:

1. In the Cherkasy region, the head of one of the forest districts of the "Central Forest Office" branch of State Enterprise "Forests of Ukraine" demanded "tribute" from subordinate foresters. They had to pay him a monthly percentage of the timber harvested by the forestry: 5% of the actual harvested volume, multiplied by 1,000.

2. A forest ranger from the "Haisyn Forestry" allowed “black loggers” to illegally destroy more than 600 trees of various species, causing damage estimated at over UAH 2.7 million.

3. In the Rivne region, the head of one of the forest districts of the "Polissya Forest Office" branch of State Enterprise "Forests of Ukraine" demanded UAH 3 million from a contractor to ensure his company's victory in a tender.

4. In Volyn, a criminal group of 15 individuals will stand trial for illegally cutting down over 1,100 trees in the territory of the "Kamin-Kashyrsk Forestry" branch of State Enterprise "Forests of Ukraine." Among the offenders are six officials from Kamin-Kashyrsk Forestry. The environmental damages from this violation exceeded UAH 6.4 million.

   

   Photo: dbr.gov.ua.

5. The former head of the "Rava-Ruske Forestry" branch of State Enterprise "Forests of Ukraine" facilitated the illegal felling of about 3,000 trees in the Yavoriv district of Lviv region. The damage amounted to nearly UAH 10 million.

6. An engineer from one of the forestry enterprises of State Enterprise "Forests of Ukraine" in Kyiv region allowed the felling of 137 trees aged over 90 years, causing damage exceeding UAH 1.1 million.

7. An official of the "Holovanivske Forestry" branch of State Enterprise "Forests of Ukraine," in order to artificially inflate performance indicators and achieve enterprise profitability, illegally issued permits for the felling of century-old trees. These actions caused damage exceeding UAH 4 million.

8. The former director of State Enterprise "Slovyansky Forestry", five of her subordinates, and an employee of the State Specialized Forest Protection Enterprise "Kharkivlisozakhyst" are accused of the illegal destruction of trees covering a total area of over 50 hectares. The offenders facilitated the felling of 1,800 trees, causing damage to the state of over UAH 14.6 million.

9. The former head of the state enterprise "Zhovtneve Forestry" in the Kharkiv region "wrote off" UAH 5 million of debt to a private company.

At the beginning of August, within just one week, the State Bureau of Investigation (SBI) uncovered abuses in the forestry sector totaling 67 million UAH.

Previously, we also reported that at the end of July, prosecutors from the Specialized Environmental Prosecutor’s Office of the Office of the Prosecutor General, together with the Cyberpolice Department of the National Police of Ukraine and SBI employees, exposed a large-scale scheme involving manipulation of the electronic timber accounting system at SE “Forests of Ukraine.” The funds involved amounted to tens of millions of UAH. At least 13 employees of this state enterprise and the SE “Forestry Innovation and Analytical Center” (LIAC) were connected to the scheme.

Photo: dbr.gov.ua.

According to the investigation, the active customers of such illegal "services" were employees of the forestry state enterprise throughout the country, but most of all in Volyn, Rivne, Zhytomyr and Kyiv regions.

The fish rots from the head

Back in June last year, BlackBox OSINT investigators wrote about the fact that Yuriy Bolokhovets, the CEO of the Forests of Ukraine, was in charge of illegal logging and corruption in the industry. They reminded us of his scandalous background: in April 2023, the Verkhovna Rada dismissed Bolokhovets from the post of head of the State Agency of Forest Resources of Ukraine. The reason: bringing 98% of the forest industry into the shadows. But 2 weeks after that, the then Minister of Ecology Ruslan Strilets returned him to lead the forestry industry as director of the State Enterprise "Forests of Ukraine". An enchanting personnel decision, isn't it?

Investigators explain Bolokhovets's rapid career rise from the position of director of the Nizhyn Forestry State Enterprise, where he had been for 8 years, to almost immediately becoming deputy head of the State Agency of Forest Resources of Ukraine, and his appointment as the country's chief forester, as "protection" from the minister.

This year, law enforcement officers have already served suspicion notices to many top officials of the State Enterprise "Forests of Ukraine," and some of them even received two:

1. Yuriy Bolokhovets, CEO of SE “Forests of Ukraine,” whom the court placed in custody with bail set at nearly 91 million UAH just 1.5 months ago. He is accused of illegal enrichment. In April, the media reported that Bolokhovets declared “free accommodation” in a luxury apartment in Kyiv, the rent for which averages about $3,500 per month.

2. Executive Director of SE “Forests of Ukraine” Ihor Litsur. About a month ago, prosecutors from the Office of the Prosecutor General informed him of suspicion of abuse of office during the state enterprise’s tractor procurement, which resulted in damages to the state amounting to 8 million UAH. Earlier, in January, Litsur received a suspicion from the State Bureau of Investigation (SBI) regarding the procurement of mobile phones at inflated prices.

3. Chief Operating Officer of SE “Forests of Ukraine” Oleksandr Kvaterko. Media have repeatedly accused this official, who previously served as Director of the Polissya Forest Office, of corruption, including the unlawful transfer of land parcels and assets within the subordinate forestry enterprises into private ownership by his acquaintances. Last year, the SBI opened a criminal case against this official on suspicion of illegal enrichment.

4. Director of the IT Technology Department of SE “Forests of Ukraine” Andriy Voronyi. According to media reports, along with Litsur, he also received a suspicion of involvement in fraudulent schemes during the procurement of mobile phones.

5. Director of the Procurement Department of SE “Forests of Ukraine” Vitalii Tsymbaliuk. Journalists claim that he is the third person involved in the case regarding the acquisition of smartphones for the enterprise at inflated prices.

6. Director of the “Capital Forest Office” branch, Viktor Sakhniuk. According to the media, in May he received a suspicion of interfering with the operation of the electronic wood accounting system. He is also known for receiving over 9 million UAH in salary during 2024, which is 2.5 million UAH more than Yuriy Bokhovets himself.

7. Director of the “Southern Forest Office” branch Oleksandr Hrytsai. In 2023, he received a suspicion from the SBI of embezzling more than 15 million UAH.

8. Former Director of the “Eastern Forest Office” branch of SE “Forests of Ukraine” Oleksandr Kravchenko. He is suspected of exceeding official authority, which caused damage of over 68 million UAH.

We have previously reported on these cases, so for EcoPolitica journalists, the acknowledgment by the SBI Director of a “centralised, vertically organised system of abuses” in the forestry sector came as no surprise whatsoever.

They stole, they steal, and they will steal

So, the problem exists, and its scale is enormous. But for some reason, the government is in no hurry to solve it.

Upon her appointment, Svitlana Hrynchuk, the former Minister of Environmental Protection and Natural Resources of Ukraine, identified the corporatization of the State Enterprise "Forests of Ukraine" and the transformation of the forestry sector into a transparent and profitable one as the goals of her department.

"Our goal is to completely eradicate abuses and illegal actions. And this will take more than one year," she emphasized.

However, no positive developments in the forestry sector have occurred during Hrynchuk's tenure. Quite the opposite: The Ministry of Environment was actively "frozen out" during large-scale scandals over illegal deforestation. It looked like this: the entire Ukrainian environmental community, including the largest international environmental organizations, was buzzing and writing appeals to the ministry, but it kept silent.

This year, the most high-profile case began in March. The ministry did not respond at all to warnings from environmental activists that foresters intended to build a road for wind turbines through valuable primeval forests in the "Shypit" forestry in Zakarpattia. It should be noted that this type of ancient natural Carpathian forest is protected not only by Ukrainian legislation but also by international conventions.

Subsequently, in early April, employees of SE “Forests of Ukraine” began to construct the road and destroyed habitats of red-listed snowdrops – the agency remained silent. Foresters continued cutting down and clearing the primeval forests, yet officials from the ministry once again failed to comment on this.

The specialized environmental agency still did not comment even when the Specialized Environmental Prosecutor's Office of the Zakarpattia Regional Prosecutor's Office, in coordination with the Office of the Prosecutor General, launched an investigation into the circumstances surrounding the destruction of this primeval forest. That is, neither we nor representatives of the environmental community received any reaction from the Ministry regarding this blatant offense.

Following the rise to power of the new Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine, led by Yulia Svyrydenko, not only was the relevant ministry dissolved as a separate state body, but also very little attention was given to environmental protection issues in the draft Government Action Program. Among the main tasks for 2025, there is indeed task number 276, which pertains to the forestry sector. It is formulated as follows: “Adoption of updated legislation on forests and timber: adoption of the Law on the Timber Market to ensure sustainable forestry, regulation of forest use, and protection of ecosystems.” Three measures are provided for its implementation:

1. Support in the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine for Draft Law No. 13227 “On the Timber Market.” This document aims to regulate the timber market, systematize its operation, address issues of environmental impact assessment related to timber, and establish more transparent operating rules. The draft law will also define the specifics of the establishment and operation of the State Enterprise “Forests of Ukraine” and introduce a unified model of forest management and protection by consolidating forest resources.

2. Development and submission to the Cabinet of Ministers of a draft resolution “Certain Issues of Implementing an Experimental Project for Introducing a Remote Monitoring System for the Movement of Vehicles Carrying Timber Cargo.” Using this, government officials intend to strengthen control over the removal of harvested timber from logging areas.

3. Development and submission to the Cabinet of Ministers of a draft law amending certain legislative acts of Ukraine regarding the regulation of the issuance of permitting documents in the forestry sector in electronic form. This document envisages that logging tickets and certificates of timber origin will be issued exclusively in electronic format.

From this list of tasks set by the government at the initiative of the Ministry of Economy, Environment, and Agriculture, we can conclude that at the Cabinet level and within the relevant agency, there is no recognition of the problem of a centralized and organized corruption hierarchy in the forestry sector.

Instead of conceptually tackling systemic corruption, the government plans to “chase after individual timber trucks,” as aptly noted by Petro Tiestov, head of the analytical department of the Ukrainian Nature Conservation Group.

Moreover, experts warn that the prepared draft law “On the Timber Market” poses an additional threat by limiting environmental oversight, and the corporatization of the State Enterprise “Forests of Ukraine” in practice could lead to management concentration, lack of transparency in decision-making, and the scaling up of corrupt practices.