Deputies of the Volyn Regional Council supported the transfer of land in the Kovel district to a private company. The firm, which carries out customs brokerage activities and is owned by an 86-year-old woman, will manage forests and two lakes for 35 years.
This was reported by the Center for Investigative Journalism "The Power of Truth."
The inconsistency of the main activity should have raised questions among deputies. However, investigators noted that, on the contrary, they praised the company for preparing the documents and noted that it had serious intentions regarding the Volyn forest.
Valuable land in private hands
A private company, Full Customs Service Nova LLC, will take over 19,500 hectares of forest land and another 125 hectares of wetlands, including the entire Lake Bile and about 55 hectares of Lake Ostrovne. They are located in the Kovel district of the Volyn region.
Formally, alongside the transfer of land use rights, the regional council has set a series of obligations for the company. It must establish the boundaries of the land on the ground, designate nature reserve areas as reproductive plots, and factor this into its operations. The State Agency of Forest Resources is also instructed to draft a contract detailing the terms for hunting management.
Loss-making administrator
The main area of activity of Full Customs Service Nova LLC is customs brokerage services. Even its director, Vasyl Markevych, did not answer why the company showed such interest in forest lands. He refused to talk to journalists from Syla Pravdy, saying that he does not give interviews.
The company is registered in Strumivka, Lutsk district, and has been operating since 2018. And yes, in addition to transportation services, it can also engage in animal trapping and hunting.
Full Customs Service Nova LLC is registered at the same address as 26 other legal entities. Among them are the Ukrainian-Polish Modern-Expo LLC and Full Customs Service LLC, which has an almost identical name. The owner of Full Customs Service Nova LLC is the namesake of the head of Modern-Expo LLC, 86-year-old Galina Pylypyuk, and the owner of Full Customs Service Nova LLC is 79-year-old Nina Kvyatkovska.
The new land manager cannot boast of high profits. Officially, the net profit in 2022-2023 was slightly more than UAH 40,000, and 2024 was unprofitable, with a loss of UAH 90,000.
Earlier, EcoPolitic reported on how 50 hectares of forests in Volyn ended up in private ownership. This became possible due to several gaps in cartographic data and the apparent blindness of local authorities, who failed to “notice” the forest when distributing land plots.
