The Capital Forestry Office (branch of the state-owned company Lisy Ukrainy) shared some of the requested information about the salary of their director, Serhiy Zaiets, with Suspilne following the news outlet’s complaint to the Verkhovna Rada Commissioner for Human Rights, Suspilne Zhytomyr reported.
Zaiets was paid 5,913,641 hryvnias over his 11 months in the post (31 January to 31 December 2025). The document obtained by journalists specifies his salary, holiday pay, and business travel allowances. However, the company did not provide copies of the payslips, which Suspilne had also requested.
According to the document, 5.27 million hryvnias of the total sum was his salary, 436,700 hryvnias was holiday pay, and 207,800 hryvnias was business trip expenses. The document made no mention of any bonuses, financial assistance, or other additional incentive payments.
Suspilne Zhytomyr chief editor Dmytro Klymenko told the Institute of Mass Information’s regional representative Oksana Trokoz that the team had reached out to the Commissioner after the company refused to provide detailed data twice.
Klymenko said that the Commissioner’s secretariat had opened proceedings, found a violation of journalists’ right of access to public information had taken place, and drawn up an administrative report against the official responsible.
Following this, the team sent its queries again, and received the salary information from the office within a few days. At the same time, the Lisy Ukrainy headquarters denied them access to the requested data again.
“It’s a matter of principle for us that society should understand and know what salaries the directors of various state institutions receive and for what work and level of responsibility. This is our right under the law, and we will keep fighting for it,” Dmytro Klymenko said.
Lisy Ukrainy’s previous refusals to share information
As IMI has reported, the news outlet has faced issues obtaining data on branch directors’ salaries from Lisy Ukrainy before.
In 2025, Suspilne Zhytomyr requested detailed data on payments made to Viktor Sakhniuk, who ran the Capital Forestry Office at the time. The company shared no specific documents, claiming that disclosing such information could harm his financial standing and pose risks to economic security.
In December 2025, Dmytro Klymenko told IMI’s regional representative that the team had continued pursuing this information and that the company had refused to disclose data on bonus payments to the office’s director, citing “national security,” among other things. At the time, the Suspilne chief editor stressed that he did not understand how information about the salary of a state-owned company’s director could relate to national security.
In April 2026, following the publication of new director Serhiy Zaiets’ asset declaration, journalists once again approached Lisy Ukrainy with a query about the structure of his salary, additional payments, and bonuses. Following the refusal, the team filed a complaint with the Commissioner. The Commissioner’s secretariat found that the Law “On Access to Public Information” had been breached, drawn up an administrative report, and forwarded it to Kyiv’s Pecherskyi District Court.