Ukraine is set to put a stop to the illegal use of forest resources as part of a large-scale special operation called ‘Green Shield’. The investigations involve both rank-and-file forestry workers and managers of state-owned enterprises implicated in illegal logging and the theft of timber.
The State Bureau of Investigations announced the launch of the operation.
A number of criminal cases have already been opened, and in some of them the indictments will be sent to court.
Put a stop to the waste of public money
The State Bureau of Investigation will focus on the schemes through which the state is losing forest resources and millions in funds. For the most part, these involve the following schemes:
- the felling of healthy trees under the guise of sanitary felling;
- the illegal sale of timber at loss-making prices;
- the reuse of documents for the export of unrecorded timber;
- misappropriation of funds from state-owned enterprises.
"Investigators are establishing the circumstances surrounding illegal logging, particularly in nature conservation areas, the misappropriation of timber and bogus employment schemes. The State Bureau of Investigation is examining the role of officials who organised such schemes or facilitated their operation," the State Bureau of Investigation said.
Law enforcement agencies are seeking to stem the flow of illegal funds out of the sector. The aim is to identify all those involved and ensure that the millions in losses are recouped.
As previously reported by EcoPolitic, the crimes uncovered in 2025 alone cost the state 546 million hryvnias.
A recent state audit revealed that the state-owned enterprise ‘Forests of Ukraine’ is misusing the awarding of state contracts worth billions to shell companies and firms that are effectively impossible to trace at their registered addresses.
Contractors are often directly linked to forestry officials or government representatives. For example, in Volyn, contracts worth over 80 million hryvnias were awarded to companies owned by relatives of forestry officials and MPs.
Separately, law enforcement officers are consistently exposing forestry officials involved in illegal logging. Often, officials themselves become the organisers of these crimes, or are convicted of negligence because they ‘fail to notice’ the destruction of thousands of trees. EcoPolitic systematically reports on such crimes in its weekly digests.
