Poland is blocking large shipments of Ukrainian timber from crossing its border—much of which is packaged and sold as wooden furniture in the European Union—over concerns the wood is illegally logged and could breach EUDR regulations, set to come into effect later this year.
That is according to Pavlo Vasyliev, Head of the Ukrainian Association of Woodworking Enterprises, who said three companies—Uniplyt LLC, ODEK Ukraine LLC, and Woodland Ukraine LLC—have been unable to transport timber across the border since March 15, 2025, despite having contracts with the State Enterprise Forests of Ukraine and EUTR declarations.
“Despite (the compliant paperwork), the blockade continues, threatening the export of timber products and the jobs of thousands of Ukrainians,” Vasyliev said, adding that the blockade is causing European suppliers to lose confidence in Ukraine as a reliable exporter of timber products.
“Similar actions by Poland had already had a negative effect in 2023-24 when Ukrainian producers lost about a third of their customers in the EU due to non-transparent custom declarations.”
As it stands, Ukranian trade across the Polish border has sunk by 94% for the year to date….with the Ukrainian supply chain now pushing the Zelensky government to track GPS coordinates for timber harvesting sites, a key requirement for the EUDR to reduce the trade barriers.
“Without transparent control mechanisms, such as e-CN (electrical consignment notes) and GPS logging, the timber industry will remain vulnerable to external restrictions and manipulation,” Vasyliev said.
Since Putin’s full-scale invasion, Wood Central understands the conflict has drastically increased the value of forests in Ukraine’s economy. “That’s because Ukraine’s main industrial areas were located in occupied and fought-over territories…with forests, largely located in the “safe” areas of Ukraine and thus remain a largely intact resource,” according to a report from the Basel Institute of Governance, published in 2023.
Last month, the WWF warned that the timber industry was now Ukraine’s third-most corrupt industry, with 62,000 cubic metres of (allegedly illegal) timber felled and traded into the European Union in 2023 alone. “Over the last five years, every second tree harvested in Ukraine was cut down through a process known as sanitary logging,” according to Myhailo Bohomaz, head of Forest Practice for WWF-Ukraine, who last year spoke of the influx of timber trafficked through the Carpathians.
“A significant portion of the logging consists of clear-cut sanitary logging, which in terms of impact can be even more harmful than industrial logging or so-called final felling,” said Bohomaz, who co-authored the Basil Institute of Government report. “The worst part is that field inspections, especially in protected forests, often reveal significant violations, such as removal of fallen trees and the designation of hollow or leaning dead trees for logging.”
- To read more about the state of Ukraine’s forests three years after Russia’s invasion, click here for Wood Central’s special feature.
