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Automatically translated version. May contain inaccuracies compared to the original.
The state enterprise “Lisy Ukrayiny” has found itself at the center of a story about exchange trading in timber, where hundreds of millions of hryvnias are allegedly being earned on buyers’ funds against their will. At the same time, the enterprise remains at the center of a personnel conflict: despite attempts to change management, influence over the state enterprise’s operations is still retained by its former head, Yurii Bolokhovets.
According to financial statements, in 2025 year the Ukrainian Energy Exchange paid dividends of 388 million UAH to its ultimate Cypriot beneficiary, Oleksii Dubovskyi. Separately, 266,7 million UAH were interest income from buyers’ guarantee deposits.
The mechanism looks like this: funds that businesses submit as guarantees to participate in auctions are unilaterally placed by exchange operators into bank deposits, earning interest, but the owners of those funds are not paid the interest. A separate company, Ukrainian Clearing House LLC, is used to work with guarantee deposits; it received a special license from the National Securities and Stock Market Commission. The founder of UCH LLC is Dubovskyi through the Cypriot firm ENEXSOL LTD, which he also owns.
For 2025 year Ukrainian Clearing House LLC received 67,7 million UAH in interest income from deposits, while income from its main activity amounted to only 320 thousand UAH. Thus, 97% of its revenues came from interest on the placement of timber buyers’ funds, who constantly face cash shortages and losses amid the armed aggression of the Russian Federation.
Against this backdrop, during congressional hearings on forestry reform in Prykarpattia accusations were voiced about possible exchange frauds on the timber market. These included, in particular, the sale of low-quality material to the Armed Forces of Ukraine disguised as high-quality, problems with selling firewood to the public, and transactions involving nonexistent goods on exchanges.
In addition to the owner of the Ukrainian Energy Exchange, Oleksii Dubovskyi, people associated with the functioning of this system include Oleksii Petrashko — a former member of the National Securities and Stock Market Commission during Viktor Yanukovych’s presidency — and current commission member Arsen Ilin. By the way, Dubovskyi permanently resides on the island of Cyprus; he left Ukraine in May of 2022.
At the same time, these “exchange games” are being played against the backdrop of a struggle for control over Lisy Ukrayiny.
In April President Volodymyr Zelenskyy spoke of “unresolved critical problems” in the sector and the need for new personnel approaches. After that, the government tried to renew the enterprise’s leadership. In July, however, Yurii Bolokhovets and the head of the State Forest Resources Agency, Viktor Smal, reportedly tried to secure the replacement of the current head of Lisy Ukrayiny, Ihor Zubovych, and the return of Bolokhovets to the position of the enterprise’s head.
The Cabinet of Ministers subsequently suspended Smal pending an internal investigation. After the disciplinary proceedings concluded, he returned to work. Bolokhovets formally remained the second person at Lisy Ukrayiny, but, according to available information, his influence on the enterprise persisted.
Bolokhovets is also linked by close ties to former prime minister Yuliia Svyrydenko. Before her resignation, the state’s representative on the supervisory board of Lisy Ukrayiny became Iryna Hruzynska from BRDO. She is also a member of the public council of DALRU and a long-time associate of Bolokhovets on forestry reform issues. It is through these personnel ties that Bolokhovets’ continued influence after his dismissal as head of the enterprise is explained.
Law enforcement also has questions for Bolokhovets. The NABU is investigating a case of possible illicit enrichment. In March, the Appeals Chamber of the High Anti-Corruption Court overturned his suspicion, finding evidence obtained in the corresponding procedural actions to be inadmissible. The criminal proceeding itself, however, has not been closed.
Management problems at Lisy Ukrayiny have already gone far beyond a personnel struggle. The head of the Zhytomyr Regional Military Administration, Vitalii Bunechko, recently stated that after the reform in Zhytomyr region the number of forestry workers decreased from 5,5 thousand to about 2 thousand. In the first seven months of 2026 year, Lisy Ukrayiny enterprises paid 171 million UAH to the consolidated regional budget, while Zhytomiroblagrolis, which operates on half the area, paid almost 365 million UAH.
According to Bunechko, more than 60% of the region’s wood-processing capacity is idle, and imports of commercial timber have increased since 2022 by 14 times — from 50 to 700 thousand tonnes per year.
As a result, questions about the reform of Lisy Ukrayiny now concern several issues at once: who actually controls the state enterprise, how its products are sold, and where the funds that business submits to participate in auctions are going.
Document: PDF proof of the original version of the news item "Навколо керівництва «Лісів України» спливла біржова схема з використанням чужих грошей на власних депозитах". It records the publication content at the moment of the first scan, the preservation date and the source: KP.UA.
