Strengthening Environmental Regulations in Ukraine
29 April 2025 18:43
On April 29, the Ukrainian parliament approved a draft law that significantly increases penalties for violations of environmental regulations in protected natural areas.
This was announced by the Minister of Environmental Protection, Svitlana Hrynchuk.
The draft law proposes a substantial increase in fines, by 50 times, for violations of the rules for protecting and using nature reserves:
for individuals, fines will range from 8,500 to 17,000 UAH;
for officials – from 17,000 to 25,500 UAH.
Currently, the fines for citizens vary from 153 to 408 UAH, while for officials they range from 255 to 510 UAH.
“Such amounts do not serve a preventive function. The cost of damaging the environment should not be less than a meal at a café. For instance, in 2024, 661 protocols were issued, with fines totaling only 89,240 UAH, while the actual damages to the protected areas amounted to over 430 million UAH,” said Svitlana Hrynchuk.
According to her, the draft law takes into account new environmental restrictions introduced in January of this year, which significantly limited vehicle movement in protected areas.
