The Kyiv City Prosecutor's Office submitted to the court the materials of the case about the attempted smuggling: an attempt was made to export oak wood worth over 700 thousand hryvnias from Ukraine using forged documents.
The agency announced this on March 13.
According to the investigation, the man tried to take the oak tree abroad using forged documents. Law enforcement officers do not know where the oak tree came from. The man was stopped by customs officers. The timber was seized and arrested.
The pre-trial investigation into this suspect has already been completed, but the investigation into his two alleged accomplices is ongoing.
The man is charged with Part 2 of Article 15, Part 3 of Article 201-1, Part 4 of Article 358 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine – attempted smuggling of timber and use of forged documents. The sanction threatens imprisonment for 10-12 years with deprivation of the right to hold certain positions or engage in certain activities for up to 3 years and confiscation of property.
In September 2025, detectives from the Bureau of Economic Security of the Kyiv Region completed a pre-trial investigation into the export of timber to the European Union countries in circumvention of the moratorium. The case was referred to court. Investigators call the organizer of the scheme an exporter who was detained at customs with timber and forged documents.
On November 10, the BEB reported that they had uncovered a scheme in Kyiv for the illegal export of valuable tree species worth almost 2 million hryvnias. According to law enforcement officials, since 2021, a group of entrepreneurs had been purchasing wood of unknown origin for cash. To legalize it, they purchased fictitious invoices and certificates of origin. Based on these documents, they received official export permits and sold oak, ash, pine, birch, and alder abroad.
In November, it became known about another attempt to smuggle wood in the Kyiv region: a private enterprise, under the guise of firewood, tried to export pine wood prohibited for export from the Kyiv region to Romania in 17 wagons. A pre-trial investigation has been launched.