After taking office on September 5, 2024, the Minister of Environmental Protection and Natural Resources of Ukraine Svitlana Hrynchuk formed her own pool of deputies. Almost 7 months have passed since then, and the ministry has undergone some changes, which we describe below.
EcoPolitic has prepared a material for its readers about the officials who are now helping the head of the Ministry of Ecology to implement the state environmental policy, and will tell you in detail which of them is responsible for which area.
We sent an official request to the ministry to provide the staffing table for 2025 and a document approving the distribution of responsibilities among the minister's deputies.
According to the staffing table, the Ministry of Ecology has the following for this year:
- 1 First Deputy;
- Deputy Minister for European Integration;
- Deputy Minister for Digital Development, Digital Transformation and Digitalization;
- 3 deputy ministers.
It should be noted that two of these positions are currently vacant: the first deputy and the deputy.
Olena Kramarenko was Hrynchuk's first deputy from October 4, 2024, to January 23, 2025. Prior to that, from May 13, 2022, she held the position of Deputy Minister in the Ministry of Environment under the previous Minister Ruslan Strilets.
On the evening of January 23, she posted a photo of her resignation on her Facebook page, and the next day the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine accepted her resignation. Since then, the position of the First Deputy Minister has been vacant.
Also, one of the three deputy ministerial positions has been vacant for the entire time Svitlana Hrynchuk has been in office.
Therefore, the entire pool of responsibilities is currently distributed among only four deputies:
- Olga Yukhymchuk, Deputy Minister of Environmental Protection and Natural Resources of Ukraine for European Integration.
- Viktoriia Kireeva, Deputy Minister of Environmental Protection and Natural Resources of Ukraine.
- Oleksandr Semenets – Deputy Minister of Environmental Protection and Natural Resources of Ukraine.
- Serhii Vlasenko – Deputy Minister of Environmental Protection and Natural Resources of Ukraine for Digital Development, Digital Transformation and Digitalization.
According to the staffing table, they all have the same salary – UAH 98,757.
It is worth noting that after Olena Kramarenko's dismissal, the redistribution of responsibilities between deputies in the ministry has already taken place twice: on February 4 and February 18.
What are Hrynchuk's deputies responsible for?
EcoPolitics analyzed the distribution of responsibilities between the deputy ministers in accordance with the order of the Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources No. 333 of 18.02.2025 “On the Distribution of Functional Powers between the Deputy Ministers of Environmental Protection and Natural Resources of Ukraine”:
1. Olga Yukhymchuk:
Photo: t.me/mindovkillia.
- European integration, implementation of EU acquis into Ukrainian legislation;
- fulfillment of the Association Agreement with the EU and other international commitments in the field of environment;
- attraction and use of international financial and technical assistance (grants, EU programs);
- international cooperation, external activities in the field of environmental protection;
- regulation of ozone-depleting substances, fluorinated greenhouse gases, and climate change;
- monitoring, reporting and verification of greenhouse gas emissions;
- geological exploration and rational use of subsoil;
- activities of the National Center for Greenhouse Gas Emissions Accounting.
2. Victoria Kireeva:
Photo: mepr.gov.ua.
- atmospheric air protection and environmental audit;
- prevention of industrial pollution, implementation of the best available technologies;
- registration of emissions and pollutant transfers;
- development of the state policy on environmental monitoring;
- control over compliance with the Aarhus Convention (access to environmental information, public participation);
- state supervision (control) in the field of environment;
- development of strategic and program-planning documents on environmental policy;
- development of state policy on environmental taxation;
- protection and rational use of land;
- biological and landscape diversity, ecological network;
- protection of flora and fauna, nature reserve fund;
- issues of biological and genetic safety;
- protection of wild, domestic and stray animals from cruelty;
- regulation of the use of objects of the Red Book of Ukraine;
- issues of special use of natural plant resources and wildlife;
- control over genetically modified organisms (GMOs).
3. Oleksandr Semenets:
Photo: mepr.gov.ua.
- Waste management (hazardous waste, cross-border transportation of waste, licensing, control over compliance with license conditions);
- deregulation of economic activity in the environmental sphere;
- management of the Chornobyl exclusion zone, overcoming the consequences of the Chornobyl disaster;
- radiation protection, radioactive waste management;
- protection, defense, use and reproduction of forests, forestry and hunting;
- chemical safety, management of chemical products;
- environmental impact assessment (EIA) and strategic environmental assessment (SEA);
- environmental management, environmental certification and labeling;
- pesticides and agrochemicals management, state registration of plant protection products obtained with the use of GMOs.
4. Sergiy Vlasenko:
Photo: mepr.gov.ua.
- introduction of digital technologies in the field of environmental protection;
- functioning of the Unified Environmental Platform “EcoSystem”;
- protection, reproduction of water, rational use of water resources;
- issuance of permits for dredging and laying communications on the lands of the water fund;
- coordinating the protection of critical infrastructure in the field of environmental protection in peacetime.
Each of the deputies may also perform additional duties on behalf of the Minister.
To recap, EcoPolitic told more about each of Svitlana Hrynchuk's deputies, their careers and experience in the environmental sector after the formation of her team in October 2024.
