13,000 felled trees and nearly 249 million hryvnias in damages: large-scale logging schemes exposed
Law enforcement officials have uncovered large-scale abuses in the forestry sector, which have caused the state to suffer losses of more than 248.6 million hryvnias. As part of the investigations, at least 13,000 illegally felled trees have been documented.
This was reported by Prosecutor General Ruslan Kravchenko.
According to the investigation, former and current employees of the forestry sector, representatives of the regional forestry administrations of the state-owned enterprise “Forests of Ukraine,” chief foresters, forest foremen, heads of agroforestry enterprises, officials from the State Geocadastre, the head of one of the communities, entrepreneurs, and other members of organized groups.
In total, 29 individuals have been notified of the charges against them.
The investigation has established instances of illegal logging in nature reserve areas, wildlife sanctuaries, and regional landscape parks. The suspects are also charged with forging documents and logging permits, the illegal sale and legalization of timber, selling timber at below-market prices, the illegal alienation of forest fund lands, and abuse of official position.
Some of the illegal logging was disguised as sanitary and reforestation measures.
Separately, law enforcement officials uncovered a scheme to legalize timber from valuable tree species. According to investigators, fictitious entries in the electronic accounting system were used in an attempt to legalize approximately 19,000 cubic meters of timber, equivalent to roughly 10,000 illegally felled oak trees.
According to Kravchenko, the scheme operated from 2022 to 2025, involved more than 100 business entities, and the total value of the transactions exceeded 147 million hryvnias. Six members of the organized group have already been charged.
Source: Office of the Prosecutor General.
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