Ukraine's Bureau of Economic Security has brought charges against two heads of private companies and against officials of a regional forestry authority for taking part in the so-called Bukovina criminal group, which attempted to export more than a thousand cubic metres of roundwood to the European Union via Moldova.
Ukraine's Bureau of Economic Security has shut down the activities of a criminal group. The criminals smuggled at least a thousand cubic metres of illegally harvested timber to the European Union via Moldova. Investigators carried out 26 searches at wood-processing companies, warehouses, vehicles and the homes of those involved; roundwood, cash and forged documents worth 10 million hryvnia (around EUR 200,000) were seized, and in addition cash amounting to 48,360 euros, 4,500 US dollars and 509,400 hryvnia was confiscated.
According to information from Ukraine's Prosecutor General's Office, the case was investigated jointly by investigators from the Bureau of Economic Security, the National Police and the Security Service of Ukraine, under the direction of the Chernivtsi regional prosecutor's office. The Chernivtsi region, a historic Ukrainian territory known as Northern Bukovina, lies in the south-west of Ukraine and borders Romania and Moldova. Northern Bukovina is a Carpathian region rich in forestry traditions.
Investigators from Ukraine's Bureau of Economic Security seized not only timber and money, but also forged transport documents, marking tags, mobile phones, vehicle dashcams and documents. The Prosecutor General's Office announced that the organiser of the criminal group, who was at the same time the head of a private company, had already in 2024 and 2025 been buying illegally harvested timber, registering consignments with forged documents of origin and drawing up the export documents required to transport roundwood across the border into Moldova. Businessmen, forestry employees and lorry drivers were drawn into the criminal operation in order to move the illegally obtained timber to the state border. Two company directors operating in the forestry and wood-processing sector have been charged under Part 2 of Article 201-1 of Ukraine's Criminal Code, while all the participants in the scheme are still being identified and the pre-trial investigation continues.
The press service of the Bureau of Economic Security reports that investigators have also identified officials of the local regional forestry authority as participants in the scheme. The “Bukovina case” was the next operation carried out by law enforcement bodies immediately after the detention of an employee of Ukraine's Forest Service, who was accused of organising illegal timber harvesting in a national park. It is only one of many cases in which state forestry employees have been implicated in criminal proceedings over the illegal timber trade.
“According to the investigation, in 2025 an employee of Ukraine's Forest Service and his accomplices purchased unrecorded timber. Officials of the forestry authority were involved in the illegal activity,” the press service of the Bureau of Economic Security said of the national park case.
Operation “Bukovina” is an operational measure carried out under the Bureau of Economic Security's standing programme to root out the shadow economy in Ukraine's forestry sector. That is the “institutional language” the agency uses in its fight against the networks smuggling illegal timber, which operate in the western and southern regions of the country and are geared towards moving illegally harvested timber out to neighbouring countries in the European Union.
The “Bukovina” raids are taking place as part of a broader programme of President V. Zelensky's government. As early as mid-2024, work began on implementing a blockchain-based timber accounting system requiring photographic documentation at every stage of harvesting, transport and transfer along the value chain, in order to stop the illegal timber trade before it reaches European Union market checks.