Millions per month and tenders worth 10 billion: what’s happening at the state enterprise “Lisy Ukrayiny”

Millions per month and tenders worth 10 billion: what’s happening at the state enterprise “Lisy Ukrayiny”

"Lisy Ukrayiny" is a state enterprise with some of the highest salaries in the country. Thanks to corporatization, salaries at the state enterprise were raised to millions of hryvnias per month for the leadership. Deputy department directors receive hundreds of thousands of hryvnias monthly. At the same time, the enterprise regularly becomes involved in corruption scandals.

OBOZ.UA writes about how much people earn at the state enterprise and why state auditors have turned their attention to "Lisy Ukrayiny."

How much people earn at the state enterprise

The "corporatization reform" the enterprise is now undergoing has already produced significant results for employees. Now salaries at this state enterprise could make even large private corporations envious.

Last year the highest-paid executive was Executive Director Ihor Litsur – 18,5 million UAH (of which 8,6 million UAH was a bonus). That means the average monthly salary of the state enterprise manager was 1,5 million UAH.

The now-former CEO of "Lisy Ukrayiny," Yuriy Bolokhovets, filed his declaration before resigning. From January through the end of June of 2026 he received a salary of 13,2 million UAH. That is an average monthly amount of 2,2 million UAH. However, upon dismissal Bolokhovets may have received compensation for unused vacation. So, possibly, the "net" salary could have been lower.

And he is far from the only state enterprise employee who receives more than a million hryvnias monthly. Moreover, this concerns not only top management. Department directors last year earned from 13,7 million to nearly 17 million UAH. Each of them received annual bonuses ranging from 5 million UAH. Likely, that amount was paid in monthly installments.

Middle managers also receive high salaries. For example, recently at the state enterprise "Lisy Ukrayiny" Tetyana Melnyk won a court case. She had worked at the enterprise for several years. She started as a procurement manager and was later promoted to deputy department director.

In June of 2025 her official salary was reduced from 321 600 UAH to 92 000 UAH. It is worth noting that 321,6 thousand UAH is her base salary excluding allowances. On average per workday she earned nearly 16,1 thousand UAH, which for 22 working days per month amounts to about 354,2 thousand UAH.

This, of course, is not millions of hryvnias per month, but it is almost ten times the national average salary.

Interestingly, Melnyk was apparently dismissed illegally, because in September of 2026 she won 5,3 million UAH in back pay from the state enterprise "Lisy Ukrayiny" for the period of forced absence.

Journalists sent a request to the state enterprise "Lisy Ukrayiny" asking for monthly salary amounts. However, the enterprise chose to "evade" and instead of monthly salaries provided the "total amount of accrued salaries for the requested period." Whether this refers to a monthly period is unknown. It was stated, however, that Acting CEO Ihor Zubovych received 3 million 633 thousand UAH, of which 98,8 thousand UAH were vacation pay. Zubovych has been performing the duties of CEO since 1 July of 2026.

"The total amount of salary accrued to I.O. Zubovych for the period you requested amounted to – 3 633 487 UAH, of which 98 866 UAH were vacation pay. No other payments to I.O. Zubovych, apart from the base salary and vacation pay, were made," reads the response from the state enterprise "Lisy Ukrayiny."

"The situation in the forestry sector shows that corporatization by itself does not eliminate disorder. Indeed, we confirmed the fact that payments to managers were a million hryvnias per month. That is significantly more than the heads of key state enterprises receive," State Audit Service head Alla Basayeva said in an interview.

There are many questions about the activities of the state enterprise "Lisy Ukrayiny"

According to official data from the State Audit Service of Ukraine, just during last year the branches of the state enterprise "Lisy Ukrayiny" signed contracts for various logging and silviculture works in an astronomical total of about 10 billion hryvnias. However, analysis of the efficiency and legality of the use of these funds reveals deep systemic problems.

The essence of the identified violations is that state forestry enterprises are effectively being removed from independently conducting economic activities in favor of designated private companies and newly created shell firms. In particular, the practice involves transferring state property and specialized equipment for use by "friendly" commercial structures for a symbolic, minimal fee. As a result, the state enterprise is deprived of the tools to operate on its own, while artificial conditions are created for market monopolization by private intermediaries.

For example, in just the first eight months of its existence LLC "Lvivlis" managed to win government tenders totaling a colossal 635,7 million UAH. The speed with which the newly created company with nominal capital conquered the region’s forestry sector strikingly resembles schemes involving recruitment of "pocket" sole proprietors.

Among the newly created sole proprietors (FOPs) the largest amounts went to:

52-year-old Halyna Hresko – 44,4 million UAH from the "Capital Forest Office" of the state enterprise "Lisy Ukrayiny";

68-year-old Hanna Palamarenko – 25,1 million UAH from the "Central Forest Office" of the state enterprise "Lisy Ukrayiny";

22-year-old Mykola Romanenko – 12,6 million UAH from the "Northern Forest Office" of the state enterprise "Lisy Ukrayiny".

Halyna Hresko from the village of Paranyne in Zhytomyr region opened her FOP only 10 months ago (in August of 2025). Before that she had not been involved in business. But it turned out Hresko is a remarkably talented businesswoman. In a matter of days she signed her first contract with a branch of the state enterprise "Lisy Ukrayiny." According to official data from the State Audit Service of Ukraine, just during last year the branches of the state enterprise "Lisy Ukrayiny" signed contracts for various logging and silviculture works in an astronomical total of about 10 billion hryvnias. However, analysis of the efficiency and legality of the use of these funds reveals deep systemic problems.

The essence of the identified violations is that state forestry enterprises are effectively being removed from independently conducting economic activities in favor of designated private companies and newly created shell firms. In particular, the practice involves transferring state property and specialized equipment for use by "friendly" commercial structures for a symbolic, minimal fee. As a result, the state enterprise is deprived of the tools to operate on its own, while artificial conditions are created for market monopolization by private intermediaries.