Ukrainian foresters – at least those who have not been mobilized – began preparing for the warm season back in the winter. In January, they spent their workdays in the coniferous forests collecting pinecones. This seemingly simple task is central to the work of repairing the damage inflicted on Ukrainian forests by Russian aggression.
During the first two years of the full-scale war, more than 1,500 square kilometers of Ukraine’s forests burned down. These include wooded areas in the combat zones and some far from the front, where wildfires were started by Russian drone and missile strikes. Most of the destroyed forests, however, are in the so-called gray zone and in the occupied territories.
In Ukraine’s central Cherkasy region, approximately 75 tons of pinecones have been collected and set to dry so that seeds can be extracted and planted in special nurseries. The one-year-old pine seedlings will then be replanted in all accessible areas where forest has been damaged.
At the front, many fortifications and most dugouts are built using wood, therefore foresters are also busy cutting down healthy trees for the supply of timber to those areas. According to the Head of the State Forestry Agency, Viktor Smal, over the last four years 17,000 train truckloads of timber have been sent to the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU). Thus, our forests, severely damaged by the war, are also being depleted due to extra demand from the army.
The other sad fact is that our forests all over the country continue to be harmed by illegal deforestation which the authorities seem unable to control.
Forestry on the front line
On the Ukrainian battle front, despite positive news from the south, the situation in Donbas is causing increasing concern. The second-largest city in the region remaining under Ukrainian control is Slovyansk. Life there is becoming increasingly dangerous. The front line has moved to within 13 kilometers of the city which, every day, is targeted by powerful bombs and missiles as well as small Russian first-person view (FPV) drones.
The state forestry service is still operating in Slovyansk. They issue dry-branch-collection permits to residents with wood-burning heating systems in their homes. The forests in the Slovyansk area are primarily oak, which is an excellent long-burning wood.
The forests themselves, of course, are of inestimable value, but like everything else in the area, they are under threat.
Two years ago, Slovyansk’s foresters were working on a reforestation project designed to undo damage from earlier in the war. In 2024 they purchased a ton of acorns of various species, hoping to plant out more than 210,000 oak saplings in the area. These plans had to be scrapped because unexploded mines and shells have made the forests extremely dangerous.
Life in Slovyansk
Electric public transport has been out of service in Slovyansk for a long time due to power supply issues, but early March saw the start of operations to dismantle the overhead lines along which the city’s trolleybuses used to run. Both the cables and the trolleybuses themselves are being removed from the city.
Once the trolleybus lines are out of the way, the city streets will be covered with drone nets to better protect the remaining residents. Since the beginning of the war, the population of Slovyansk has halved from about 100,000 to 50,000. There are also up to 5,000 children still living in the city, but schools are working online.
Banks and post offices remain open, and cafes, restaurants, and hotels continue to work, but, on social media, residents are discussing cheap ways to transport personal belongings out of the city, indicating a trend towards self-evacuation.
Road haulage removal services are expensive. Residents who have already left Slovyansk advise those who are thinking of leaving to use the state postal service instead.
Even heavy household appliances, such as refrigerators and washing machines, can be sent by mail to other cities. Post offices will store received items free of charge for the first five days and after that for a small daily fee. This means that you can send personal belongings to any city in Ukraine, travel there yourself, and find accommodation before you need to pick up your belongings from the post office.
Evacuation of Slovyansk’s petting zoo is also underway. According to zoo employee Oleksiy Kamenev, about 200 animals are being transferred to an ecological park in the village of Kovalivka in Poltava region. Fifty parrots and dozens of other birds were the first to make the four-hour journey to their new home.
After Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s statements about Russia’s determination to continue the war and his marking out the occupation of the whole of the Donbas as the key aim, Ukrainian military experts expect the battle for Slavyansk to be the focus of operations during the coming summer.
Lavrov’s statements also highlights the absurdity of discussions about a peace treaty with Russia. As long as Russia is on the offensive in even one sector of the front, it will not agree to peace or even a temporary ceasefire.
The views expressed are the author’s and not necessarily of Kyiv Post.