Massive deforestation continues in the Carpathians, a significant portion of which is illegally exported to Europe. Despite the moratorium on the export of round timber, introduced back in 2015, corrupt officials are finding ways to circumvent the law.
In particular, wood is exported under the guise of firewood or smuggled using fake certificates. This leads to an increase in the scale of deforestation.
A fictitious reform that changed nothing
In September 2022, the government announced reform of the forestry sector. Instead of 158 independent forestry enterprises, one state enterprise “Forests of Ukraine” was created, and instead of 24 regional departments - 9 regional offices. Meanwhile, the Verkhovna Rada created a Temporary Investigative Commission to investigate the actions of the State Forestry Agency, to which the newly created enterprise is subordinate. According to the commission’s findings, the forestry industry is missing out on hundreds of billions of hryvnias, while its potential annual income could be up to 880 billion hryvnias, and in 2022 it amounted to only 23.3 billion hryvnias.
Yuri Bolokhovets – from dismissal to new appointment
Responsibility for these losses was placed on the head of the State Forest Agency, Yuri Bolokhovets, who was fired from his position in 2021. However, on May 4, 2023, Bolokhovets was appointed director of the State Enterprise “Forests of Ukraine”. Thus, he continues to manage the same forestry enterprises, but now as director of the enterprise again. This “reform” only changed the name of his position, leaving the essence unchanged.
Biography of Yuri Bolokhovets
Yuri Bolokhovets was born in 1982 in the village of Ivangorod, Chernigov region. In 2005 he graduated from the National Agrarian University and qualified as a forestry engineer. He worked in various positions in the Ministry of Ecology and Forestry, in particular as director of the State Enterprise “Priluki Forestry” and the State Enterprise “Nezhin Forestry”. In 2020, Bolokhovets became the head of the Chernigov regional forestry and hunting department, and then deputy chairman of the State Forestry Agency. In February 2021, he headed the State Forestry Agency.
Declarations and disagreements
According to Bolokhovets’s declarations, his income lags significantly behind his expenses. For example, in 2016, his salary as director of the State Enterprise “Nizhyn Forestry” amounted to 186 thousand UAH, while expenses for real estate and repairs exceeded 2 million UAH.
“Then, among the real estate properties, Yuriy Bolokhovets declared only non-residential premises of 216 square meters in his native Ivangorod, Chernihiv region, registered in the name of his wife Lyudmila Bolokhovets, and an unfinished construction project - an apartment of 90 square meters in Nizhyn. The car is a 2013 Shkoda Octavia, “unknown.” It was also registered to his wife,” investigators found out.
In subsequent years, he declared a new apartment in Kyiv and significant savings that did not correlate with his official income.
Bolokhovets also rents an apartment in the elite Kiev residential complex “Boulevard of Fountains” virtually free of charge from his business partner Andrey Reva. The rent for such housing is about 160 thousand UAH per month, which is almost equal to his monthly salary. Such rent looks like a hidden form of remuneration, which may be a corruption scheme.
In the declaration for 2018, there is another interesting story - in the Bolokhovets family, in their native village of Ivangorod, a plot of land of 2,500 square meters and a residential building of 64 square meters worth only 25 thousand UAH appear. The date of obtaining ownership of the plot and house is indicated as October 30 and 31, 2014. And they were registered in the name of the daughter of a Nizhyn forester, Sofia Bolokhovets, who was born in 2009, that is, at the time of acquiring ownership, she was 5 years old, and at the time Bolokhovets filled out the declaration, she was 10 years old.
At the same time, both the land plot and the house acquired by Bolokhovets’s child in 2014 were not included in the declarations for 2016 and 2017. And in 2018 they suddenly appeared. That is, the person deliberately hid property from the NACP, for which he should be punished by criminal proceedings. But for some reason no one paid attention to Bolokhovets’ hidden property and hidden sources of income for years.
Family business and shadow income
Yuri Bolokhovets, together with his family and partners, accumulated significant land assets in the Chernihiv region. Despite their officially modest income, Bolokhovets and his relatives own hundreds of hectares of land.
After Bolokhovets was appointed director in 2012, his mother founded the Ivangorodskoe farm, which now owns and leases 475 hectares of land, including state property. In 2015, Bolokhovets’ wife and her partner created Ivangorodskoe LLC, which owns 1,424 hectares of land in the Ichnyansky and Borznyansky districts.
Significant land assets raise questions about possible assistance from State GeoCadastre officials. One example is that in 2018, 35 hectares of state land were transferred to Ivangorodskoye LLC, bypassing the legislation on the protection of cultural heritage.
In addition, Bolokhovets is a co-founder of the Hunting and Fishing Enterprise “Eager” LLC, which owns more than 20 thousand hectares of land. This enterprise received forest land from the Chernigov regional council for 25 years thanks to the influence of Boris Shiyanov, the former deputy minister of transport.
Local residents have repeatedly protested against the closure of access to the forests managed by the Huntsman, but these protests have had no result. In 2011, Bolokhovets and his partner Reva were accused of beating local hunters who lost their dog on the territory of “Eager”.
In September 2023, despite public outcry, the Chernihiv regional council transferred another 4,622 hectares of land to MRB Eger LLC for a period of 49 years, causing outrage among local residents. Yuri Bolokhovets officially resigned from the founders of Yeger in 2017, but his wife Lyudmila remained a signatory of the enterprise until 2023.
Assets and income of Lyudmila Bolokhovets
Since 2020, Lyudmila Bolokhovets, the wife of Yuri Bolokhovets, began to receive significant income from land holdings and business activities. The first dividends from Ivangorodskoe LLC amounted to 330 thousand hryvnia in 2020, when the company’s income increased from 17 to 50 million hryvnia, and net profit amounted to 13 million hryvnia. In subsequent years, its dividends increased: in 2021 - 660 thousand hryvnia, in 2022 - 330 thousand hryvnia, and in 2023 - 722 thousand hryvnia.
In 2021, Lyudmila Bolokhovets opened her own company engaged in freight transportation. Already in the first year of operation, its income amounted to 451 thousand 675 hryvnia, in 2022 - 696 thousand hryvnia, and in 2023 - 1 million 535 thousand hryvnia. She received this income from companies owned by her husband’s business partners, Mikhail and Andrey Rev.
From 2020 to 2023, Lyudmila Bolokhovets began actively buying land plots in the Chernihiv region. During this period, she acquired 13 land plots with a total area of 36 hectares for an amount of about 1.1 million hryvnia. The agreements were drawn up in the name of Tamara Tretyak, who acted on behalf of Lyudmila Bolokhovets.
Tamara Tretyak, a fellow villager from Bolokhovets, began winning tenders in 2016 for the supply of timber for the Nezhin Forestry State Enterprise, which was led by Yuri Bolokhovets. From 2017 to 2022, it won tenders worth about 33 million hryvnia, of which almost 14 million during the leadership of Bolokhovets.
Such financial successes raise questions about possible corruption schemes and theft of public funds.
Illegal construction by Yuri Bolokhovets on seized forest lands
The family of Yuri Bolokhovets faced new charges regarding the illegal seizure of land and the construction of a private house on the territory of a state forest. The State Bureau of Investigation opened criminal proceedings against Bolokhovets on November 14, 2023 for abuse of power.
Yuri Bolokhovets’ mother, Anna Bolokhovets, is also an active participant in the family’s land agreements. A former teacher, she owns three plots of land with a total area of more than 9 hectares, leased to Ivangorodskoe LLC, owned by her daughter-in-law. In addition, it leases another 73 hectares of communal land.
The investigation revealed that Yuriy Bolokhovets and his family arbitrarily seized a plot of land that was in permanent use of the State Enterprise “Forests of Ukraine”. A house was built on this site, which was not officially declared. The plot of land borders on another, owned by Bolokhovets’ mother, intended for farming. However, the family created an artificial pond on the site and installed temporary recreational structures, effectively turning it into a private recreation center.
To ensure this in particular, these lands, along with other 15 plots, were fenced with a continuous fence, which makes it impossible for unauthorized persons to gain access. These suspicious actions fall under Article 209 of the Criminal Code “Legalization (laundering) of proceeds from crime.”
Evidence indicates that Yuri Bolokhovets likely funneled illegally obtained funds to his wife’s foreign accounts in the jurisdictions of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. The court granted permission to access these accounts.
This is not the only accusation brought against Bolokhovets. His activities as head of the forestry agency raise questions of corruption schemes and coverage of officials accused of abuses. Thus, despite numerous corruption scandals, Bolokhovets retained in positions such persons as Yuri Soima, Vasily Ivanina, Ruslan Sodolinsky and Victoria Belousova, who were involved in corruption schemes.
These facts raise doubts about the ability of Yuri Bolokhovets to effectively manage the forestry industry, fight corruption and ensure transparency and legality in his activities.
Who is protecting Yuri Bolokhovets
How was it possible, in common sense, with all this information, to appoint Yuri Bolokhovets as the head of all forestry enterprises in the country as part of the “reform” of the forestry industry? And they still haven’t fired him? is not interested in real reform and putting things in order, but in continuing the shameful corruption practices in the forestry industry,” the investigators say.
State Enterprise “Forests of Ukraine” and the State Forest Agency are subordinate to the Cabinet of Ministers through the Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources, headed by Ruslan Strelets. Yuriy Bolokhovets, head of the State Enterprise "Forests of Ukraine", was appointed to his post in July 2020, simultaneously with the appointment of Strelets as Deputy Minister of Ecology.
Ruslan Strelets, the initiator of the creation of “Forests of Ukraine,” appointed Bolokhovets as leader, despite numerous criticism and accusations of corruption. Bolokhovets is accused of shady schemes, due to which the state budget is losing billions of hryvnia.
Anti-corruption authorities may take up this matter, since Sagittarius has not yet implemented real reforms and has not fired Bolokhovets, which raises suspicions of his interest in maintaining corruption schemes.
