The black market for excise goods: 1 million packs of illegal cigarettes have been seized since the beginning of the year
17 August 12:03
In the first seven months of 2026, law enforcement agencies seized more than 1 million packs of illegal cigarettes, according to People’s Deputy Olga Vasilevskaya-Smaglyuk, as reported by "Komersant Ukrainian".
“Illegal tobacco products remain one of the largest segments of the black market for excise goods,” the MP wrote.
Vasilevskaya-Smaglyuk noted that the National Police reported to the Verkhovna Rada’s Finance Committee on the results of efforts to combat the illegal circulation of excise goods for January–July 2026.
As part of the fight against counterfeit tobacco products, law enforcement officers conducted 757 authorized searches.
During these searches, they seized:
- 1.126 million packs of tobacco products;
- 21.7 metric tons of tobacco;
- nearly 5 million cigarette tubes;
- over 66,000 bottles of e-cigarette liquid;
- nearly 34,000 e-cigarettes;
- over 18,800 POD systems.
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“In addition, law enforcement officers seized equipment for manufacturing cigarettes and components for e-cigarettes, various raw materials—including glycerin and flavorings for e-liquids—as well as over 1 million units of packaging materials for tobacco products,” — notes Vasilevskaya-Smaglyuk.
Between January and July, police uncovered and shut down seven clandestine tobacco manufacturing operations. Two of them were operating in the Kharkiv region, and one each in the Dnipropetrovsk, Cherkasy, Vinnytsia, Lviv, and Chernivtsi regions.
In the Kyiv region, law enforcement officers shut down three illegal production facilities for e-cigarette liquids.
As a reminder, Ukraine has changed the rules for issuing licenses for tobacco cultivation and fuel storage. Under the new requirements, if a tobacco cultivation or fuel storage site does not have an official mailing address, the license must include the cadastral number of the relevant land plot.
As previously reported, due to a lack of time to fully test the “eAkciz” system, the Ministry of Digital Transformation supported a proposal from the business community to postpone the system’s launch.
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