There have been personnel changes at the Ministry of Economy, Environment, and Agriculture. Pavlo Kartashov, who became Deputy Minister only in August 2025, was dismissed from his position. The Cabinet of Ministers formalized this decision by Resolution No. 70-r dated January 28, 2026.
In his place, the post of Deputy Minister of Economy, Environment, and Agriculture will be filled by Oleksandr Krasnolutskyi. His appointment was approved by the government by Resolution No. 95-r dated January 30, 2026, for which he was released from the position of First Deputy Head of the State Regulatory Service of Ukraine by mutual agreement.
The Ministry reports that Oleksandr Krasnolutskyi has extensive experience in public service. Among his previous workplaces are the State Agency for Land Resources and the State Service of Ukraine for Geodesy, Cartography, and Cadastre.
In the top environmental agency, the new Deputy Minister is not a newcomer. Before joining the regulatory service, Oleksandr Krasnolutskyi held the positions of Deputy Minister and then First Deputy Minister in what was then the Ministry of Environmental Protection and Natural Resources of Ukraine. This period of his employment spanned from 2020 to September 2024.
As it turns out, the newly appointed Deputy Minister did not have time to work as a deputy under Svitlana Hrynchuk, who at that very time, in September 2024, was appointed head of the Ministry of Environmental Protection and Natural Resources. The environmental community accused her of systemic inefficiency in the ministry – from non-transparent personnel policies to the persecution of eco-activists.
In particular, among the activists' complaints was the replacement of Oleksandr Krasnolutskyi by Olha Yukhymchuk, who, according to representatives of KEKC, lacked the necessary expertise in the field of nature conservation.
Another Deputy Minister of Economy – Ihor Zubovych – is also consistently the target of criticism from the environmental protection community. In particular, he is accused of issuing illegal permits for tree logging in national parks of Ukraine. Due to these actions, activists appealed to the Office of the Prosecutor General.
It should be recalled that after the Ministry of Environment, Svitlana Hrynchuk headed the Ministry of Energy. There she became embroiled in a large-scale corruption scandal. The Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (SAP) and the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) organized Operation "Midas," during which abuses totaling an enormous $100 million were uncovered.
