“Ukrainian Forests” for 30 Billion: How a Successful State Enterprise Is Being Turned into a New Source of Wealth for Political Influence Groups

Currently, the juiciest place for enrichment in the government sector appears to be the state enterprise “Forests of Ukraine.” In recent years it was led by Yuriy Bolohovets (bio), and this simple chart shows what fat piglet he has been fattening.

He increased the enterprise’s net income by a third, but instead of trimming, he increased tax payments to some of the largest in the country—to 16 billion hryvnias in the last year. And this year they planned to raise it further; the first half of the year was supposed to end with 10 billion in taxes.

But in April, “someone” reached Zelensky, and the president personally and publicly stated that the leadership at “Forests of Ukraine” needed to be changed. Prime Minister Sviridенко and her minister of economy and agro-industrial complex Sobolev fussed a bit, but what could they do when this “someone” is so powerful that he can decide matters in the head of Zelensky himself, and they carried out the task.

The new head turned out to be a certain industry insider Igor Zubovych (on the left in the photo).

Some consider him a protege of David Arakhamia, because he once worked as head of the State Ecological Inspectorate for the Southwest District (covering Odesa and Arakhamiya’s home Mykolaiv region). And in 2025 someone elevated him to the level of deputy minister of economy.

But there are sources who believe that what’s happening now is a distribution of influence among different factions.

Beside Zubovych in the photo is his official advisor Oleg Salo. The new generation doesn’t remember this figure, but the old-timers should. Oleg Salo is a former major general of the police; his peak career was during Yanukovych’s era. In 2012 he was the first deputy head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs’ Department of Public Security.

Salo even briefly ran Львів region during Yanukovych’s time, but then he was supposed to be purged and lingered in the shadows for a long while. But when in the spring “someone” urged Zelensky toward handing over “Forests of Ukraine,” he came into the light and in June officially became a advisor on coordination and control of the Department for Coordinating Activities within the state enterprise “Forests of Ukraine.” This gave reason to think who might be involved in the future tearing apart of the state enterprise, which pays billions in taxes to the budget.

The new leadership has already cut salaries for the old top management by 15%. Officially and legally it will take a while to fire them, so the new broom hints at whom it doesn’t welcome.

Also in the picture is Agriculture Minister Taras Vysotsky. “Forests of Ukraine” seems to be placed under his remit, giving him a chance to resolve a bunch of issues before the verdict. Recently the NABU and SAPO handed a case to court about procurement of foodstuffs at the beginning of the war. According to the investigation, Vysotsky, then serving as first deputy minister of economy and agriculture, sanctioned purchases of food abroad at twice the price. But for Zelensky this isn’t a problem, and during the government’s collapse of Sviridenko’s cabinet, Vysotsky wasn’t harmed; he became minister of agro-industrial complex beside the fat forest boar.

Gossips say that soon people connected with some other “servants of the people” will start parking themselves in “Forests.” Let’s see who starts surfacing. Currently, Vladimir Hrytsuk’s income declaration has been released, a candidate for the director of the Polissia Forest Office of “Forests of Ukraine.” He rode up the social ladder from the nature reserve “Pусhа Радзівіла.” And now he has a bunch of chances to replace the old declared Lexus LX 570 with something new.

Of course, one can treat this as inevitable. Zelensky cannot pay everyone with envelopes, that cursed NABU is pressuring wage earners, and someone must earn and pass to the purse for the envelopes. And Versace underwear won’t buy themselves. And they are needed by a bunch of people who constitute the backbone of the corrupt regime. Therefore, bad lords must be thrown fat bones so they can gnaw on them and not bark at the hand that feeds them.

We will watch the celebration of slicing publicly online. Because in “Forests of Ukraine” you can steal a lot of money just from the forest itself. Hence, we will inevitably see a drop in the official income of the state enterprise. And with it, a drop in taxes to the state budget. And thus we will buy less weapons with our money to avoid being occupied. Meanwhile someone will have a new briefcase and a Mercedes. And one cannot pretend it happened by accident. Unpaid money in especially large amounts after Zelensky’s public statement that he doesn’t like how the previous head worked is precisely the marker of change.

Blog by: Yuri Nikolov