The Parliament approved a new bill on April 29 in its first reading, significantly enhancing penalties for violations of environmental regulations in protected natural areas.

This was announced by the Minister of Environmental Protection and Natural Resources, Svitlana Hrynchuk.

The bill proposes a substantial increase in fines for violations related to the protection and use of reserved territories by 50 times:

• for individuals, the fine will range from 8,500 to 17,000 UAH;
• for officials – from 17,000 to 25,500 UAH.

Currently, the fine for individuals is from 153 to 408 UAH, while for officials it ranges from 255 to 510 UAH.

"These amounts do not serve their preventive purpose. The cost of damaging the environment should not be less than a meal in a cafe. For instance, in 2024, there were 661 protocols issued and fines totaling only 89,240 UAH. However, the actual damage to the protected areas during the same period exceeded 430 million UAH," said Svitlana Hrynchuk.

According to her, the bill takes into account new environmental restrictions introduced by the law adopted in January of this year, which significantly limited vehicle movement in protected areas.