Under the guise of firewood, a private enterprise attempted to export high-quality pine timber to Romania in 17 railcars, the export of which is prohibited. Law enforcement officials stopped the scheme and uncovered a large-scale smuggling operation disguised as fuel raw materials.

The specialized environmental prosecutor's office of the Office of the Prosecutor General, with the support of operatives from the Main Directorate "D" of the State Security Service, the Department for Combating Smuggling and Violations of Customs Rules of the State Customs Service, and the Territorial Administration of the Bureau of Economic Security in the Kyiv region, caught the private enterprise red-handed and prevented the export of commercial pine timber from Ukraine, the export of which is directly prohibited by law.

On October 31, 2025, the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine made a decision to ban the export of fuel wood (logs, branches, twigs, brushwood, chips, shavings) starting from November 21, 2025. The aim of this is to ensure the availability of firewood in the domestic market for a stable heating season.

During the investigation, it was established that officials of the private enterprise, aware of the impending ban, purchased over 1,500 cubic meters of firewood from a forest user. The products were immediately loaded into 17 railway cars in the Kyiv region for further export to Romania.

However, as a result of in-depth customs inspections, it was found that commercial pine timber was being exported under the guise of firewood.

In order to complicate the detection of smuggling of commercial timber by customs authorities, it was disguised as firewood.

Currently, in the territories of Kyiv, Vinnytsia, Rivne, and Chernivtsi regions, with the assistance of the Department of Internal Security of the State Enterprise "Forests of Ukraine," urgent inspections of another 8 cars with timber are ongoing, aimed at documenting the circumstances of the criminal offense.

As a result of the inspection of 9 cars, over 2,000 logs of commercial pine timber with a diameter of 15 to 54 cm and a volume of 165 cubic meters, valued at more than 1 million UAH, were discovered.

Based on this fact, the Specialized Environmental Prosecutor's Office of the Office of the Prosecutor General has initiated a pre-trial investigation under part 2 of Article 201-1 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine (smuggling of timber prohibited for export outside Ukraine).