The Appeals Chamber of the High Anti-Corruption Court (HACC) has dismissed the charges against Yuriy Bolokhovets, CEO of the State Enterprise “Forests of Ukraine,” according to a statement by lawyer Volodymyr Volodymyrov on Facebook.
According to a statement by the Advanq Law Firm (ADVANQ), which provided legal representation, the court’s decision is final and cannot be appealed. According to the lawyer, the court found the charges against the head of the state-owned enterprise to be unfounded.
“Even before the case was transferred to NABU, the investigation had done a tremendous amount of work, gathering a large amount of material, but was unable to find evidence of land seizure, receipt and legalization of illegal funds, or abuse of official authority. Four of the five charges were not confirmed at the investigation stage, and in court we managed to prove the groundlessness of the last one,” Volodymyr said.
He emphasized that the reason for the persecution of Bolokhovets was the forest reform, as a result of which “the old system was destroyed, and billions in revenues from the sale of state timber began to be paid into the budget.”
The lawyer recalled that last year Bolokhovets was held in custody for two months with an “unrealistic bail amount” imposed, and his family, colleagues, and defenders were also subjected to pressure and information attacks. At the same time, he expressed his respect for the anti-corruption authorities for their objective analysis of the materials despite external pressure.
The press service of the State Enterprise “Forests of Ukraine” emphasized that the pressure on the CEO was due to his position on the introduction of transparent market mechanisms for the sale of timber and the de-shadowing of the forestry industry.
As reported, Yuriy Bolokhovets was notified of the suspicion in July 2025. During the investigation, he was held in custody with the possibility of bail.
State Enterprise “Forests of Ukraine” is one of the largest forest users in Europe and is under the management of the State Agency of Forest Resources of Ukraine. The enterprise manages 6.6 million hectares of state forest fund land.
