Since February 2022, the start of Russia's full-scale invasion, the greater part of the damage to Ukraine's forests has been caused precisely by the actions of the Russian army. Some 165,000 ha of forest have been destroyed, and losses currently exceed 1 trillion UAH — at the Wise exchange rate that is 19.4 billion EUR; and that is without counting all the war-related damage done to the environment.

Forest fires across Ukraine have caused losses of more than 1 trillion UAH. The destruction of forest stands accounts for the greater part of the country's ever-growing environmental losses, confirms the state enterprise "Forests of Ukraine", which is responsible for managing the state forest fund. Ukraine's environmental inspectors estimate that in the period from 15 to 22 May 2026 alone, losses rose by a further 36.7 billion UAH, of which more than 36.3 billion UAH is directly linked to forest fires and the loss of individual stands. Such a weekly increase points to one thing: the war in Ukraine continues to destroy forest resources at a rate never seen in peacetime as a result of natural disasters.

Official figures from Ukraine's State Environmental Inspectorate show that total war-related environmental damage in the period from 24 February 2022 to 22 May 2026 amounts to roughly 6.9 trillion UAH (133.9 billion EUR), of which forest fires have caused losses of 1 trillion UAH (19.4 billion EUR).

Around 165,000 hectares of forest have burned since the start of the war, so the scale of the damage has been rising steadily for more than four years now... Most of the fires are directly linked to shelling and combat operations carried out by the Russian army, which are concentrated along the front line and in the border regions.

Last week the greatest concentration of fires was in the Kharkiv and Chernihiv regions. Because of the fighting, the fire sites were, and remain, far harder to reach. On the front line, crews put out several fires covering more than 20 hectares. Firefighters worked under the threat of mines. "Firefighting is hampered by the presence of explosive objects," a representative of the state enterprise "Forests of Ukraine" stressed.

Over the past week forestry workers extinguished 22 separate fires covering 28.6 hectares in total; 14 of the fires were caused by Russian airstrikes, and a further seven by enemy drone attacks in the Chernihiv region. The remaining fires were attributed to careless handling of fire by local residents in the Rivne, Volyn, Kharkiv and Sumy regions. New fires have broken out in the Chernihiv region since then, particularly in the Pereliub forestry district, where only a few weeks ago a huge fire raged across 5,800 hectares. Foresters in Pereliub note that the fire began outside the forestry district's territory — on the slopes of Mount Pikuy in the Carpathians — in an area managed by the Boikivshchyna National Nature Park.

These losses fall heavily on Ukraine's already stricken forests, where logging volumes have dropped noticeably since the aggressor's invasion, even though as recently as 2021 Ukraine exported timber and timber products worth more than 2 billion US dollars. Since then Kyiv has extended the so-called quota-free licensing regime, banning exports of unprocessed timber and fuelwood until the end of 2026. The government order is intended to direct timber to domestic processors and to heating in rural regions, supporting the population in wartime conditions. As we have written previously, despite the increase in logging, Ukrainian wood-processing companies are struggling to deliver raw materials on time. "Forests of Ukraine" identifies four main obstacles reducing production capacity across the country's sawnwood sector, citing power supply outages, rising logistics costs, weak demand in the European Union and a shortage of labour (https://www.lmsp.lv/ukrainas-koksne-eiropas-tirgu-situacija-un-izaicinajumi)

Restoring the forests will take years of demining, replanting of stands and forest regeneration before Ukraine's forests can be used for timber production again. Ukraine's forest sector is working to expand logging in the country, to control harvesting and to step up wood processing. Ukrainians are preparing to align their forest sector legislation with the requirements of the European Union's Deforestation Regulation. It must be acknowledged that attracting sustainable, large-scale investment will be very difficult while there is no sign that Russia's war in Ukraine might end.