The State Geological Service of Ukraine assessed the damages to Ukraine’s mineral resources in the temporarily occupied territories at 71 trillion hryvnias

The State Geological Service of Ukraine assessed the damages to Ukraine’s mineral resources in the temporarily occupied territories at 71 trillion hryvnias

In 2024, the Department of State Geological Control of the State Service of Geology and Mineral Resources of Ukraine conducted about 900 damage estimations caused in the subsoil of Ukrainian territories temporarily occupied by the Russian Federation.

This was reported by the Head of the State Geology Service, Oleh Hotsynets, during the Public Report of the Service for the previous year.

"The total amount of damage amounted to about 71 trillion UAH. This concerns the territories that are temporarily occupied – Luhansk and Donetsk [regions], Crimea and other [areas], the Black Sea, the Azov... This information was sent to the Office of the Prosecutor General and territorial units of the prosecutor’s office," said Oleh Hotsynets.

In addition, the State Geological Control conducted damage estimations on Ukrainian territory within the framework of criminal proceedings - 22 estimations totaling 1 billion 532 million UAH.

"The estimations were most often carried out based on the fact of unauthorized sand extraction," reported the Head of the State Geology Service. He noted that information on the actual amounts collected for the benefit of the state is currently unavailable, as criminal proceedings are ongoing.

Regarding inspections of subsoil users – scheduled inspections were not conducted due to the imposition of martial law in Ukraine according to the Presidential Decree. In 2024, 17 unscheduled inspections of subsoil users were conducted.

It should be recalled that during the Public Report, Oleh Hotsynets also stated that from the granting of special permits for subsoil use, 3.5 billion UAH were received in the State Budget in 2024: 100 special permits were issued as a result of online auctions, and 378 – without auctions (including under the "minor subsoil use" rule).

Open transfer of subsoil use rights (on the so-called secondary market of special permits) was utilized by 59 subsoil users in 2024.