The state-owned enterprise “Forests of Ukraine” plans to allocate UAH 400 million to upgrade its material and technical base and firefighting infrastructure in preparation for the fire-hazardous period of 2026, the company announced on Facebook.
“This year, we are tripling our investments compared to last year. We plan to purchase 16 large Ukrainian-made fire trucks, nearly 2,000 fire hoses, about 700 backpack sprayers, and dozens of forest firefighting units. The priority is to support frontline forestries operating in conditions of the greatest military risk,” the statement said.
This year, the state-owned enterprise also plans to equip 29 new observation towers with television systems and completely renovate 18 existing ones.
In addition, plans for 2026 include the creation of 31,000 km of new mineralized strips and the maintenance of 140,000 km of existing ones. To carry out this work, the company will purchase 42 special forest plows.
At the same time, Lesy Ukrainy will retrain its personnel: more than 2,000 employees will undergo training in the Forest Firefighting Manager and Forest Firefighter programs, and in the spring, joint training with the State Emergency Service will take place in the Poltava, Cherkasy, and Lviv regions.
A separate area of work will be the expansion of the network of recreational areas for safe recreation. State Enterprise “Forests of Ukraine” plans to build 50 such facilities in areas with a high risk of fire and significant tourist traffic. The largest number of sites is planned to be created in the Sumy, Chernihiv, and Carpathian regions, as well as in the Kyiv, Zhytomyr, Odesa, and Mykolaiv regions.
Last year, the company managed to reduce the area of forest fires by half compared to 2024. State Enterprise “Forests of Ukraine” is one of the largest forest users in Europe, managing a state forest fund covering an area of 6.6 million hectares.
