Millions of hryvnias spent on fines instead of reforestation: a new trend

It appears that State Enterprise “Forests of Ukraine” has developed a new recurring expense item. And no, this does not refer to reforestation, procurement of modern monitoring systems, strengthening of forest protection, or contributions to the state budget. Instead, the company is increasingly forced to spend money on compensating for environmental damages, making payments to communities for illegal logging, forest littering, and blatant failures in controlling its own territories.

This is not about tens of thousands of hryvnias. Just in the last couple of years, the total amount of reported fines, compensations, and legal claims has already exceeded half a billion hryvnias. And these are only the cases that have become public.

Today, EcoPolitic will show how the state enterprise allows itself to squander millions of hryvnias earned from our collective wealth. We will clearly demonstrate that these are no longer isolated incidents, but an established system operating under the principle “if it’s not yours, it doesn’t hurt.”

When money isn't spent on forests

Although each individual case could be explained by coincidence, human error, or “isolated violations,” recent news from various Ukrainian regions forms a rather coherent picture. In this picture, million-hryvnia claims against the largest state-owned forestry enterprise in the country are gradually becoming routine.

A million here, a million and a half there

We were prompted to examine this issue by several court cases involving millions of hryvnias, which became known last month and in which State Enterprise “Forests of Ukraine” or its branches are the defendants.

Lviv Region

The Commercial Court of Lviv Region satisfied two lawsuits from the Rava-Ruska and Velyki Mosty communities against branches of State Enterprise “Forests of Ukraine” over illegal logging on enterprise-controlled lands. The total amount of damages that the court ordered to be recovered exceeded 1.1 million UAH. We are talking about hundreds of illegally felled trees in various forest districts within these communities.

The amount seems far from record-breaking, especially for a state enterprise that constantly demonstrates the scale of its activities. The problem lies elsewhere.

This is by no means the first time that “Forests of Ukraine” has been forced to compensate damages for violations occurring on territories for which it is directly responsible for protection.

Zhytomyr Region

Another telling case was reported by the media in Zhytomyr Region. The state forestry enterprise had to pay over 1.6 million UAH due to large-scale littering of forest fund lands. During an inspection, environmentalists discovered an illegal landfill covering about 1.7 ha, filled with sawdust, other wood processing waste, and household garbage.

So, we are no longer talking about complex illegal timber export schemes or the activities of organized “black loggers” groups. The enterprise faces million-hryvnia claims simply because of a landfill in its own forest, the gradual formation of which could hardly have gone unnoticed.

Ivano-Frankivsk Region

The Kosiv District Prosecutor's Office filed two lawsuits against SE "Forests of Ukraine" for a total amount of over 4 million UAH due to illegal logging of protected forests in the Carpathians. At present, the Commercial Court of Ivano-Frankivsk region has already fully satisfied the claim for the recovery of 842,000 UAH. The hearing on compensation of another 3.2 million UAH is ongoing.

The geography of the problem is expanding faster than the forests

When we began working on this material, we did not even suspect that the problem would turn out to be so large-scale. If you look at the map of such incidents, its wide geography becomes apparent: Lviv, Zhytomyr, Kyiv, Zakarpattia, Volyn, Ivano-Frankivsk. And this list continues to grow.

Kyiv region

July 2025 – The Commercial Court of Kyiv region recovered from the state enterprise "Forests of Ukraine" in favor of the Tashanska Village Council 3.33 million UAH in damages caused by illegal logging.

April 2026 – The same court ordered the foresters to pay over 1.3 million UAH for the illegal felling of 185 trees on the territory of the Hlevakha Settlement Council in the Fastiv district.

Zakarpattia region

October 2025 – The prosecutor's office ensured the recovery from SE "Forests of Ukraine" of over 10.3 million UAH in damages for illegal logging within the boundaries of the nature reserve fund.

Zhytomyr region

June 2025 – It seems that in Zhytomyr region, littering in their own forests is becoming a “good” tradition among local foresters, and the court does not tire of punishing them for it: the branch "Capital Forest Office" of SE "Forests of Ukraine" paid over 1 million UAH to the budget of the Yemilchyne Settlement Council for storing sawdust in the forest on an area of 1.5 ha.

February 2026 – almost 2 million UAH for the destruction of 80-year-old oaks in the Sloviansky Kriag reserve, by court decision, SE "Forests of Ukraine" must pay to the special fund for environmental protection.

Ternopil region

November 2025 – over 750,000 UAH, by court decision, had to be paid by the branch "Podillia Forest Office" of SE "Forests of Ukraine" for the illegal logging of 32 trees of various species by unidentified persons.

Ivano-Frankivsk region

At the start of this year, the enterprise paid almost 280,000 UAH to the Broshniv-Osadska Village Council in Ivano-Frankivsk region, also for destroyed trees.

To court – like going to work

The systemic nature of the problem is especially evident in the case of Zhytomyr region. We visited the official resources of the Polissia District State Environmental Inspectorate and compiled a list of cases involving compensation for illegal logging, for which court decisions have already been issued – only cases from the current year were recorded.

When the bill already reaches hundreds of millions

However, the most striking cases occur when the amounts start hitting triple digits in millions.

In April this year, the Office of the Prosecutor General announced record-breaking lawsuits against the State Enterprise "Forests of Ukraine" in a single criminal proceeding. We are talking about nearly 387 million UAH in damages due to large-scale illegal logging in the protected forests of the Carpathians. For the Ukrainian forestry sector, this is already an amount on the scale of a dedicated state program.

According to investigators, in 2022, officials of the then-Kutsk Forestry Enterprise organised systematic forest destruction on the territory of the Yabluniv and Bereziv forestry units. Even valuable stands within the "Hutsulshchyna" National Nature Park were logged. Under the guise of fictitious sanitary fellings, former forestry officials illegally cut down more than 9,000 trees across an area exceeding 108 hectares.

Forests as a source of fines

The most disappointing thing about this trend is not even the scale of losses. Rather, it is how quickly multi-million claims cease to be seen as exceptional occurrences.

Another million for illegal logging.

Another one and a half million – for land pollution.

Several tens of millions – for the negligence of officials.

Hundreds of millions – for large-scale violations in the forestry sector.

Against this background, statements about effective management and reform in the forestry industry sound particularly strange. After all, efficiency is usually measured by how well a system functions and prevents problems, not by how promptly and routinely it pays fines for their consequences.

EcoPolitic sent a request to the State Environmental Inspectorate to find out how many lawsuits its officials filed against the State Enterprise "Forests of Ukraine" and its territorial branches during 2025, how many of these were upheld in court, and for what amounts. The Inspectorate informed us that “The State Environmental Inspectorate did not file any lawsuits against the State Enterprise 'Forests of Ukraine' in 2025” and redirected our inquiry to its territorial branches. We are awaiting responses, which we will definitely share with you.

How much forest could have been restored for this money?

The publicly known sums for claims, compensations, and losses connected with the activities of the State Enterprise “Forests of Ukraine” for the past and current year already exceed half a billion UAH. Interestingly, less than two months ago, the company boasted about reducing expenditures by almost the same amount:

“Last year, nearly half a billion UAH was saved on the salaries of 'managers',” the foresters announced.

Could you please explain, where is the saving, if you paid these funds to local and national budgets for your own violations?

And this raises a number of logical questions:

• How many surveillance cameras could have been installed in the forests for this money?

• How many forest patrols could have been funded?

• How many hectares of forest could have been restored?

• How many environmental protection measures could have been implemented?

"Forests of Ukraine" publishes very little information regarding the financial aspects of its activities, so it is quite difficult to answer these questions. However, the order of magnitude can still be compared. For example, in 2021, the director of the Bohatyrske Forestry Enterprise, Oleh Ponomarenko, and the head of the Semenivske Forestry Enterprise, Eduard Orlov, estimated the cost of planting one tree at 2–4 UAH, while according to their data, the cost of afforestation of 1 ha amounted to approximately 12,000 UAH.

Even assuming that over the past five years the cost of seedlings and planting work has doubled, half a billion UAH would be enough to plant 62.5–125 million trees and create new forests on almost 21,000 ha. This is equivalent to planting trees over 29,000 football fields or across the entire city of Dnipro.

Another interesting comparison arises when the amounts of fines regularly paid by "Forests of Ukraine" are compared with the budgets of forest protection and development programs. For example, the implementation of the Program for Protection, Use, and Restoration of Forests in Ternopil region for 2024 utilized about 210 million UAH. This is almost half the amount of claims by the Prosecutor General's Office against forest officials responsible for the destruction of Carpathian forests.

The website of the Ministry of Environmental Protection and Natural Resources of Ukraine contains an interesting document – "Project of the National Recovery Council on War Aftermath Mitigation". Among other things, it includes items related to forests. Since the indicative funding requirements are listed in euros, we can consider them still relevant today.

With the hundreds of millions that forestry enterprises have spent over the past couple of years on compensations to communities, it would have been possible to:

• build 5 new forest seed centers and expand one existing center;

• create over 480 new recreational areas and renovate more than 700 existing ones;

• equip an area of at least 225,000 ha with fire surveillance camera systems.

Disappointing conclusions on "effectiveness"

While Ukraine is seeking funds for forest restoration and to counteract the impacts of the war on the environment, "Forests of Ukraine" regularly finds itself at the center of court proceedings. Instead of investing in prevention, the state enterprise is increasingly spending funds to pay for its own mistakes.

And while the management of the forestry sector boasts about its efficiency, rational spending, and industry modernization, millions of UAH continue to be spent not on developing the enterprise or improving and expanding forested areas, but rather on fines and compensation for damages. It appears that this is what the management of "Forests of Ukraine" currently considers a model of "effective" governance.