Defending a Forest Under Fire in Kharkiv. Who is Blocking the Granting of Conservation Status?
Kharkiv is a city constantly under fire. However, for two years now, residents have been protecting the forest near Lake Osnova here.
They are being threatened and followed. A criminal proceeding has even been opened against one of the activists, Svitlana Kuraksina.
While the forest still has no conservation status, two companies — “Karier-Osnova” and “Reysis Ukraine” — are running their business near the lake, mining sand.
Ecologist Valeriy Lovchynovskyi, who has seen one of the companies’ projects, asserts that in the future, they plan to remove fifty truckloads of sand from the quarry every day, and he is convinced: this will destroy both the recreational area and the roads.
Sand mining near the lake and near the forest. Screenshot from Svitlana Kuraksina’s video.
Sand martins, protected by the Bern Convention, have already built nests in the extracted sand. But this did not stop the equipment — the nests were destroyed.
Martins built nests in the washed sand. Photo provided by Svitlana Kuraksina.
Kharkiv residents appealed to the military-civilian administration to grant nature conservation status to the area, which is located near the Emerald Network. The public initiative “Holka” investigated who is blocking the granting of this conservation status.
One of the enterprises, “Reysis Ukraine”, plans to extract sand directly from the lake for another 10 years. This is what the residents say. Meanwhile, the “Karier-Osnova” company already wants to expand sand extraction and enter the forest territory.
The green zone is under the jurisdiction of the state enterprise “Forests of Ukraine”, which is supposed to protect it. There is even a separate strategy that provides for the expansion of forest areas. But the management of one of the branches of “Forests of Ukraine”, contrary to this strategy, decided to conclude an easement agreement with “Karier-Osnova”.
An easement (servitude) is the right to use someone else’s land when it is otherwise impossible to use one’s own (e.g., if you need access to your plot, bringing communications to it, etc.). However, this can only be done through a neighboring plot of another owner.
Due to such a decision by the branch of “Forests of Ukraine”, an 11-hectare forest plot is under threat of destruction. This is despite the fact that sand is a very common mineral, and finding it elsewhere is not a problem. True, due to logistics, this will make the transportation of sand somewhat more expensive. And this is unprofitable for business. The only thing that currently stops the company from destroying the trees is the lack of a positive conclusion from the environmental impact assessment.
The fact that nature is currently preserved is the merit of Svitlana Kuraksina and the activists. A resident of Kharkiv, while her son is serving in the Armed Forces of Ukraine, she rallied the townspeople and created the public organization “Keepers”:
Local residents often gather in the forest, tying trees with blue and yellow ribbons to show that this is state property and the property of the people.
Local residents came out to a rally to ban deforestation. Screenshot from a video provided by Svitlana Kuraksina.
Kharkiv Mayor Ihor Terekhov stated that sand mining should not be expanded at the expense of the forest. After that, state bodies began to check the documentation and found out that some of the documents are outdated and do not reflect the presence of a forest in this area. Currently, the city hall spokesman Yuriy Sydorenko comments on the situation quite laconically:
In reality, they are not just removing sand here. Trees that are undermined fall, and they are simply stacked aside. Local residents recorded such activity last year.
Screenshot from a video shot in June 2025.
The head of the Specialized Environmental Prosecutor’s Office in the Kharkiv region, Viktor Boiko, in a comment to the public initiative “Holka” notes that the issue of taking representational measures to protect the interests of the state is currently being resolved:
We are talking about invalidating and canceling the environmental impact assessment conclusion issued to the company ‘Karier Osnova’, as well as invalidating the land easement agreement concluded between the state enterprise ‘Forests of Ukraine’ and the company ‘Karier Osnova’ regarding the right to use a land plot of 11.2 hectares.
Ecologist Valeriy Lovchynovskyi familiarized himself with the project, which has currently been rejected, and notes that the situation will significantly worsen if it is actually implemented. According to him, the company “Reysis Ukraine” plans to create an enterprise that will mine sand on a large scale for the next 10 years:
It will be transported by 50 trucks daily. This will not only be a burden on the road but will also destroy the recreation area and turn it into an industrial zone next to high-rise buildings.
According to the ecologist, Lake Osnova is a drainage lake and is connected to groundwater and the Udy River. The water level in the lake and in the wells of the residents of the Zhykhor community is one water horizon, and the quality of drinking water depends on this.
Lovchynovskyi emphasizes:
If industrial sand mining and bottom deepening begin, the groundwater level could drop by 1.5 meters near the lake and up to 20 cm in the adjacent built-up area.
In his opinion, a decrease in the water level could lead to the drying up of the forest. Then no restoration measures will help: instead of a forest, there will be dry trunks and steppe thorny vegetation.
The lake is also a stopover for migrating birds, particularly those listed in the Red Data Book. And downstream are sections of the Emerald Network, so this territory should be under protection.
Swans in Lake Osnova. Photo provided by Dmytro Konstantynov
The Emerald Network is a network of particularly valuable natural territories in Europe. It was created and is being developed to protect rare species of plants and animals.
In this district, Kharkiv residents elected Member of Parliament Oleksandr Bakumov (“Servant of the People”), and he has known about this problem for more than a year. The politician notes that the position of local authorities should have been more active here:
But Kharkiv residents appealed not only to the Member of Parliament but also to the military-civilian administration with a demand to create a local forest reserve “Zhykharskyi”. They were informed there that the territory has already been included in the list of valuable natural territories for the expansion of the region’s nature reserve fund network.
Response from the Department of Environmental Protection and Nature Management of the Kharkiv Military-Civilian Administration.
In turn, the foresters, SE “Forests of Ukraine” and “Kharkivlisozakhyst” have already written to the military-civilian administration that they are against the creation of the reserve, because they allegedly will not be able to protect the forest from pests, ensure the safety of visitors, and also — ensure the region’s needs for wood.
Response to the military-civilian administration from the branch “Slobozhanskyi Forest Office”.
Petro Tiestov, head of the expert department of the “Ukrainian Nature Conservation Group”, has read these responses, and such a position of the foresters outrages him:
If public activists achieve some success while defending green zones, they may be threatened or sued to divert their resources. In some cases, criminal proceedings are even opened.
Thus, against activist Svitlana Kuraksina, who writes inquiries, appeals, and calls the police, a criminal case was opened under Article 206 (obstruction of lawful business activity). Moreover, the scheme is the same: when the prosecutor’s office refuses to open a case, they are forced to do so through the court.
But it’s not just about the opened criminal case. Activists have repeatedly noticed that they are being followed.
MP Oleksandr Bakumov, when he learned about the threats to Svitlana Kuraksina from “Holka”, noted:
The situation that has arisen in the Kharkiv region is not isolated. Large-scale disinformation campaigns and lawsuits are a reality for the defender of the Carpathians, journalist Olena Mudra. She is currently fighting to preserve the mountain pastures, where a business associated with former Party of Regions member Maksym Yefimov is building windmills.
But in the Carpathians, a significant part of the territories is not just located near the Emerald Network, but is its integral part.
The Verkhovna Rada has been delaying the adoption of the relevant law, which could resolve a number of conflict issues, for 5 years. Therefore, the parliament is not fulfilling our international obligations.
If the MPs had supported the bill “On the Emerald Network”, activists all over Ukraine would not have to defend green zones in many cases now. And for this, the “Servants of the People” have had a mono-majority in the parliament for more than a year.
It is worth noting that nine MPs from the Kharkiv region, including Bakumov, voted for the bill “On the Emerald Network” when it was brought up for consideration in 2021.
MP Yuliia Svitlychna abstained during the voting, and four more parliamentarians representing the Kharkiv region were absent — Dmytro Mykysha, Oleksandr Feldman, Oleksiy Krasov, and Dmytro Shentsev. There were not enough votes then, and for 5 years the bill has never been brought up for reconsideration by the Verkhovna Rada.
As for the MPs from Zakarpattia, they blocked this legislative initiative. Journalists managed to record the correspondence in the chat of the “Dovira” parliamentary group. MP Robert Horvat then explained to his colleagues: “The bill will block the possible construction of ski resorts in the mountains. Please do not support it.”
Photo of the correspondence from the chat of the “Dovira” parliamentary group during the vote for the Emerald Network in 2021.
The head of the environmental committee Oleg Bondarenko (“Servant of the People”) notes that his colleagues in the committee support the issue of arranging the territories of the Emerald Network and count on the government and leading public organizations to join its advocacy:
Defending green zones is becoming increasingly difficult. Last year, the specialized Ministry of Environment disappeared from the government. It was this ministry that helped block harmful legislative initiatives, including the scandalous “Ihor Mazepa law” (draft 12089), which was aimed at legalizing land grabs. Despite the appeal of almost 130 organizations, initiated by “Ecology – Law – Human” together with “Holka”, the parliament has not yet restored the work of the specialized ministry.
Specially for “Livyi Bereh” (LB.ua)
