On April 29, the Ukrainian Parliament reviewed a bill in its first reading that aims to significantly increase fines for violating environmental regulations in nature reserves.
This was announced by the Minister of Environmental Protection, Svitlana Hrynchuk.
The proposed legislation suggests a fifty-fold increase in fines for breaches of rules governing the protection of reserved areas:
- for individuals, fines will range from 8.5 thousand to 17 thousand UAH;
- for officials – from 17 thousand to 25.5 thousand UAH.
Currently, fines for individuals range from 153 to 408 UAH, while for officials, they are between 255 and 510 UAH.
“These sums do not serve a preventive function. The responsibility for damaging the environment cannot be cheaper than a lunch at a café. For instance, in 2024, there were 661 protocols issued with fines totaling only 89.24 thousand UAH, while actual damages to the nature reserve exceeded 430 million UAH,” said Svitlana Hrynchuk.
She added that the bill takes into account new environmental restrictions set forth in a law passed in January this year, which significantly limits vehicular movement in protected areas.