A court ordered the state-owned enterprise "Forests of Ukraine" to pay 2.5 million for illegal logging in the Kherson region

The state-owned enterprise "Forests of Ukraine" will pay nearly 2.5 million hryvnias in damages to the state budget. The enterprise was held liable for conducting clear-cutting in the Kherson region without the required environmental impact assessment.

This is stated in a ruling by the Commercial Court of Odesa Oblast. 

The lawsuit filed by the Kherson Regional Prosecutor’s Office was granted in full. Since the local forestry enterprise had previously been reorganized, its legal successor—the state-owned enterprise “Forests of Ukraine”—was ordered to pay the full amount of damages and court fees. The funds awarded will be directed to a special environmental protection fund.

According to the court, in 2023–2024, 4.5 hectares of forest were cut down in the Velykooleksandrivka Forest District following fires caused by military operations. Experts identified more than half a thousand stumps from the destroyed trees. The environmental damage was estimated at 2,499,591 hryvnias.

Forest rangers justified their actions by citing the existence of special permits and the need to carry out sanitary measures. However, according to the law, clear-cutting an area larger than 1 hectare requires a mandatory environmental impact assessment, which the company failed to conduct. The court determined that the absence of an environmental impact assessment could not be justified by martial law, since the territory was neither under occupation nor under siege, and no combat operations took place there directly.

Юлія Калабайда