A billion trees or an unsuccessful way out of the crisis from Forests of Ukraine.

Photo: SE Forests of Ukraine and the State Bureau of Investigation

On November 18, State Enterprise “Forests of Ukraine” boasted about the completion of President Zelensky’s “Green Country” program in the plan planting a billion trees. This caused mixed reactions on social networks. After all, simple calculations show that for this they had to plant more than half a million trees every day for five years, or plant a tree every moment for 31 years. Activities of such scope could not be carried out unnoticed. But, for sure, greenery still flourishes in the Forests of Ukraine, but not on the branches, but in the wallets of employees of state-owned enterprises.

“The planting of the symbolic “billion dollar tree” took place on the territory of the Central Military Hospital in Kyiv. Representatives of the Ministry of Economy, Environment and Agriculture of Ukraine, the State Agency of Forest Resources of Ukraine, the Union of Warrior Foresters of Ukraine, scientists of NUBiP, military and demobilized employees of the State Enterprise “Forests of Ukraine”, students of the Vyshchedubech School of Forestry joined the action,” the press release stated state enterprises.

They reminded that the Green Country Program started in June 2021. The decree on its initiation was signed by President Volodymyr Zelenskyi during the “Ukraine 30.Ecology” forum.

“We are starting the Green Country project. I will say right away that this is not a political project, but exclusively an environmental project for nature and the environment. We have set ourselves an ambitious, but, I am sure, feasible goal – to increase the area of ​​forests by one million hectares in 10 years. For this, in the next three years, we aim to plant one billion trees in Ukraine,” Volodymyr Zelenskyy said during a speech at the forum in 2021.

Foresters reported that they immediately got to work and planted 100,000 trees in 5 years across Ukraine. They created exclusively natural forests, combining such species as common pine, Pallas pine, common oak, hanging birch, ash, maple, beech, spruce, fir, larch and others. The combination of coniferous and deciduous species reduces the risk of fires and ensures biodiversity, the state enterprise writes.

“Someone planted one tree, some hundreds of trees, but all together we did an important thing – not only did we plant a billion trees, but together we changed the attitude of society to the topic of forest restoration and nature conservation in general,” said Yuriy Bolokhovets, general director of the State Enterprise “Lisa Ukrainy”.

According to Yuri Bolokhovets, an oak tree was chosen as the symbolic billion dollar tree. He was dropped off by a demobilized soldier-forester Oleksandr Kotseruba together with pupils of the Vyshchedubech school forestry. But it was not the only billion-dollar tree. If you read the TG channel of the state-owned enterprise, the billion-dollar tree was planted in almost every region. Because who counts them there!

According to Bryukhovets, not only a billion trees were planted during the “Green Country”. Forestry reform took place during these years. Management has been centralized, a transparent system for the sale of wood has been formed, and a record amount of taxes has been paid to the budgets of all levels, a digital chain of traceability of the movement of wood has been introduced, and the fight against illegal logging has been significantly strengthened. This is very surprising to hear. After all, recently the State Enterprise “Lysy Ukrainy” has been mentioned in the press usually in a negative light.

Defenseless forests On the same day, November 18, environmental prosecutors reported that primeval forests, quasi-primitive forests and natural forests have been preserved in Ukraine — unique natural areas that have not undergone significant human intervention and represent a valuable part of the national natural heritage. They are subject to special protection according to the law. However, in some regions, these areas remained for a long time without defined borders, protection zones and proper legal status. This created risks of their loss due to possible felling, construction or other types of intervention.

Thanks to the work of specialized environmental prosecutors:

• more than 20 lawsuits for the protection of primeval forests and natural forests in Vinnytsia, Volyn, Zakarpattia, Lviv, Rivne, and Chernivtsi regions have been submitted to the courts;
• the total area of ​​the plots, in respect of which measures were taken, is about 2,000 hectares.

Concrete results have already been achieved at the stage of pre-trial response:

• Chernivtsi region: the development of land management projects for five primeval natural monuments (over 270 ha) has begun;
• Volyn region: the boundaries of the primeval forest natural monument with an area of ​​62.7 hectares were drawn;
• Sumy region: a forest with an area of ​​28 hectares received the status of a primeval forest monument of nature;
• Zakarpattia Oblast: after repeated appeals by prosecutors, a commission was created, which began surveying almost 700 hectares of forests that could not receive the proper status for years.

Taxes are paid less than two diners On November 7, the deputy head of the Office of the President of Ukraine, Viktor Mykyta, said that two McDonald’s restaurants in Zakarpattia pay almost the same amount of taxes as the forest industry of the region. Transcarpathia received UAH 17 million in revenue from deforestation in 2024, and two McDonald’s will pay UAH 16 million in taxes this year.

“In 2024, 700,000 cubic meters of forest were cut down in Transcarpathia. One tree, if it is commercial wood, can contain from 0.3 cubic meters to 1.2 cubic meters. That is, we can say that somewhere around 400,000 trees were cut down in Transcarpathia. We looked at how many trees were processed at sawmills. There are about 200 sawmills in Transcarpathia. Trees were cut there and exported. This is a good thing. This is a plus. The local budgets received UAH 17 million during 2024, because it is an investment marker, Viktor Mykyta said.

“We can open two more “McDonald’s” and completely close down the forest, for example. And then calculate whether it is necessary or not. I have everything,” Nikita added.

“We have already seen how, for years, “black loggers” and some officials from SE “Forests of Ukraine” turned a state-owned enterprise into a business for their own pockets. Schemes with the exchange of wood volumes, fictitious tenders and “gray” trade have been working for many years. And only now have law enforcement officers finally begun to open criminal proceedings. I have repeatedly raised this topic. It is possible to restore a CHP or a transformer in a year or two, but to restore a destroyed forest – in a decade. What we are planting now is not even for the children, but for the grandchildren. That is why I call on the law enforcement agencies to conduct a real audit of the State Enterprise “Forests of Ukraine”.

Frenzied felling of trees There are many releases of law enforcement agencies regarding state-owned enterprises. We will remind:

• On November 10, according to the materials of the SBI, the forestry engineer of the State Enterprise “Forests of Ukraine” will be tried, who allowed the illegal felling of wood for more than 1.1 million hryvnias
• From October 31 to November 6, 2025, the territorial and interregional territorial bodies of the State Inspectorate conducted 371 control measures, and 353 protocols on administrative offenses were drawn up. Damages in the amount of 11 million 100 thousand hryvnias were calculated for the violation of the requirements of environmental protection legislation. The total amount of submitted claims and lawsuits is 2 million 694 thousand UAH.
• More than 160 hectares of forest lands in the Myrhorod district were returned to the state by the Prosecutor General’s Office. Back in 2006, plots were leased to a private company for a symbolic 6-42 hryvnias per year. However, the tenant did not pay even these funds and used the forest for years without contracts, accounting and control. During this time, trees were systematically cut down in the massifs.

This is news that we found in a search engine in a couple of minutes. Perhaps, against the background of this theft in all its meanings, the State Enterprise “Forests of Ukraine” decided to create a positive information drive. It turned out badly.

The source