The “Capital Forest Office” branch of the state-owned enterprise “Forests of Ukraine” awarded tenders worth almost 45 million hryvnias to a newly established sole trader. In theory, safeguards such as the requirement for experience in relevant work and references should have been in place. However, these obstacles were circumvented thanks to a letter of recommendation directly from the branch director, which he had written following the fulfilment of a contract worth 24,500 UAH.
This was reported by OBOZ.UA.
A nationwide scheme
Journalists discovered that, in the last year alone, 22 new sole traders specialising in timber harvesting have emerged and received over 1 million hryvnias in state funding for work carried out for ‘Forests of Ukraine’.
The top three most successful newcomers are as follows:
UAH 44.4 million from the "Capital Forestry Office" of SE "Forests of Ukraine" was received by 52-year-old Halyna Hresko;
- UAH 25.1 million from the "Central Forestry Office" of SE "Forests of Ukraine" went to 68-year-old Hanna Palamarenko;
- UAH 12.6 million from the "Northern Forestry Office" of SE "Forests of Ukraine" was obtained by 22-year-old sole proprietor Mykola Romanenko.
The success story of Halyna Hresko
This sole proprietor business is not even a year old-registration took place in August 2025. However, the first orders did not take long to arrive. Within days, Halyna Hresko signed her first contract with a branch of SE "Forests of Ukraine".
Theoretically, to win a government tender, one must have experience and positive references. In particular, to receive state funds, it is necessary to provide a contract for similar work performed and a letter of recommendation. However, as it turned out, such requirements are easily circumvented if the head of the contracting company is interested.
The head of the "Capital Forestry Office" of SE "Forests of Ukraine", Serhii Zaiets, personally signed a letter of recommendation for Halyna Hresko. As OBOZ.UA cites the document: “Given the experience of cooperation with sole proprietor Halyna Ivanivna Hresko, we recommend working with this contractor.”
It is notable that all procurements for state enterprises go through a tender procedure, but only if their value exceeds UAH 50,000. The very first contract with Halyna Hresko’s sole proprietorship was concluded by the "Capital Office" for UAH 24,500. This made it possible to bypass the need for bidding and create the appearance of tangible experience for the entrepreneur for future million-hryvnia orders.
In other words, a letter from the company’s head was used for a new tender at the same company. Journalists asked Serhii Zaiets whether this constituted a violation.
“Well, I sign all the letters. We have 15 forestry districts. In any visa approval, we appoint the head of the forestry district or the person responsible for harvesting in the district. If I see a visa approval is present, then I sign the letter... The procurement department checks whether they can allow it or not,” the official replied.
OBOZ.UA was unable to contact Halyna Hresko. No one answered the phone number listed in the contract.
Earlier, the Head of the State Audit Service of Ukraine, Alla Basalaieva, reported that only during 2025, branches of the State Enterprise "Forests of Ukraine" had signed contracts worth 10 billion UAH with contracting organizations. These organizations were supposed to carry out basic forestry operations, such as planting or logging trees. However, auditors encountered cases where some companies turned out to be “phantoms” – they could not be located at either their legal or actual addresses. In some instances, large-scale operations were performed by contractors that officially did not employ a single person.
EcoPolitiс also reported that anti-corruption media wrote about another scheme in the forestry sector – the fictitious employment of hundreds of people who did not actually attend work but received salaries and bonuses.
