Ukraine’s ambassador to Australia has warned that Russian-origin timber rerouted through third nations and built into Australian homes is helping fund Moscow’s war, and has thrown his weight behind the industry’s push to close the gap. That is according to Vasyl Myroshnychenko, who said Australian houses should not help bankroll Russia’s invasion.
Pointing to a Nine investigation published in the Sydney Morning Herald and The Age that set out the scale of the trade, the ambassador said significant volumes of Russian timber were still reaching Australia after being routed through third countries and processed offshore. The practice, he argued, was sidestepping what the sanctions were meant to do rather than breaking any specific rule.
With the forestry industry estimating up to 15,000 new homes built each year could contain Russian-origin timber, the ambassador warned the wood was hidden in the fabric of finished houses, behind walls, floors and roofs. The products “may be generating revenue for a regime,” Myroshnychenko said, tying the trade to the deaths of tens of thousands of Ukrainians and the destruction of entire cities.
Whilst praising Australia’s record of standing with Kyiv, the ambassador backed the call to close the gap, casting it as a test of the sanctions regime’s ability to hold. Loopholes that allow Russian commodities to enter through third countries erode both the force of the measures and the principle behind them, he said, and the concern extends well beyond a single product.
The ambassador’s support adds diplomatic weight to a case the timber industry has put to a Senate inquiry, with the Australian Forest Products Association pressing for stronger action to protect local manufacturers and the integrity of the domestic market. AFPA acting chief executive Richard Hyett said the latest evidence pointed to Russian timber still reaching Australia in volume despite the measures in place.
Australia had been left exposed because it had done less than its partners to curb rerouting, Hyett argued, pointing to the European Union and the United States as having gone further. “Australia has become a target for Russian products,” Hyett said.
AFPA ties that warning to as much as 100,000 cubic metres of imported timber a year that could carry Russian material. Its submission seeks to extend the 35 per cent tariff to all products containing it, regardless of stated origin. It also presses for country-of-origin labelling and tighter border checks, so rerouted shipments are caught before they clear customs and reach the market. Those steps would bring Australia closer to the controls already operating across the European Union and in the United States.
The ambassador’s intervention follows revelations that Russian timber is being laundered through China into Australian homes, and comes after the industry earlier pressed Albanese over Russia’s shadow timber trade. The submission now sits before a Senate inquiry weighing tougher import controls, with the AFPA warning that as many as 15,000 Australian homes a year could still be built with timber linked to Russia.
