More than 3,700 hectares of forests in Kharkiv Oblast are now on fire, with firefighters struggling to contain nine fires started by Russian strikes, according to the Ukrainian State Emergency Service. In addition, “ongoing Russian attacks in the area and the presence of mines and other unexploded ordinance.”
To date, more than US $360 million worth of damage has now been caused by Russian armed forces, with Ukrainian intelligence reporting that the Kremlin has authorised the destruction of 60,000 hectares of productive forests for military and commercial purposes – including millions of mines and other unexploded ordinance, which has made Ukraine’s forests the most dangerous on earth.
According to Ukrainian intelligence, 40% of the total forest area in Kharkviv, held by Russian forces between March 2022 and September 2022, has been either mined or destroyed by fires connected to armed combat – with Russia now trading harvested timbers through Russian supply chains into Eurasian “friendly countries.”
It comes as Ukraine’s Ministry of Environmental Protection and Resources reports that Russia has caused US $63 billion in environmental damage since the start of the conflict – with Donetsk, Luhansk, and Kharkiv amongst the most challenging hit areas, with Ruslan Strilets, the country’s Environmental Minister, claiming that Russian armed forces are responsible for at least 3,600 environmental crimes in Ukrainian forests.
Ukraine is ramping up logging as the war enters a “new phase.”
On Friday, Wood Central reported that Ukraine’s biggest state enterprise, Forests of Ukraine, is scaling up lumber and raw log production to build new roads and enormous fortifications along Ukraine’s front line.
Since the start of the war, more than 200,000 cubic metres of lumber and raw wood have been provided to the Ukrainian Armed Forces, with more than 75,000 cubic metres of timber supplied “free of charge” in the first three months of this year alone.
“Forests (the state enterprise) will find the volumes and organise the delivery – no matter what point on the map of Ukraine we are talking about,” according to Yuriy Bolokhovets, the CEO of Forests of Ukraine, adding that “We are the largest state-owned company, (and) if necessary, Forests of Ukraine is ready to increase the volume of supplies significantly.”
In January, Mr Bolokhovets ramped up logging in Ukraine’s forests, with more than one million additional cubic metres of Ukrainian timber sold into European markers through auction – to save the country’s processing industry from bankruptcy.
At least 3.5 million hectares of forest have been affected by military activities in Ukraine and Crimea, with 2.9 million hectares impacted by the 2022 invasion, including more than 1 million hectares of areas designated for sustainable forest management.
- Click on Wood Central’s special feature to learn more about Ukraine’s forests and the challenges they faced during and after the conflict. To learn more about South Korea’s “Green Miracle” and lessons for Ukraine, click here.
