Ukraine is losing billions due to illegal imports of Apple equipment

26 May 2025 20:06

INFOGRAPHICS

More than 80% of Apple devices are imported into Ukraine illegally. This information was published by investigative journalist Yevhen Plinsky on his Facebook page, reports "Komersant Ukrainian".

Plinsky explained that his post launches a series of publications based on facts and statistics, “which demonstrate the lack of desire of the current leadership of the State Customs Service to fight against smuggling.” The investigator decided to start with Apple gadgets.

The figure of the day. “5,440 Apple gadgets cross the border of Ukraine every day as smuggled goods, and the taxes lost on this could buy 1,000 FPV drones every day,” wrote Yevhen Plinsky .

According to him, in just three months, the state has lost more than UAH 1.8 billion in potential budget revenues in the form of unpaid VAT. At the same time, the customs found only 107 units of illegal products, which is less than 0.02% of the total smuggling turnover.

Plinsky uses specific figures in his post. In the first quarter of 2025, only 47,869 iPhones were officially imported into Ukraine. Meanwhile, mobile operators recorded the activation of 250,166 new devices of this brand. This means that more than 202,000 iPhones ended up in Ukraine without passing customs control and paying taxes. Thus, the share of smuggling reached a record 80.9%.

*Yevhen Plinsky illustrated his investigation with a summary table*

Where did 202,297 iPhones come from? It’s simple. Illegal imports without paying customs duties. In other words, smuggling. The same is true for other categories of Apple products: MacBook, Apple Watch, AirPods,” the investigator explains.

Smuggling of Apple equipment to Ukraine: what customs says

Yevhen Plinsky notes the following:

“Customs has two reports on this topic (the topic of gray imports – ed.) in 2025. First: On March 8, a Moldovan citizen was detained who tried to import 67 Apple gadgets. Second: on January 23, customs officers found more than 40 units of Apple gadgets that a resident of Ternopil region wanted to import.

Let’s take a closer look at them.

According to the Lviv Customs, on March 8, a Volkswagen Crafter driven by a 45-year-old Moldovan citizen living in Ternopil region arrived at the Krakivets-Korchova checkpoint from Poland.

To pass customs control, the driver chose the “green corridor” lane, which is intended for the transportation of goods that do not require mandatory declaration and are not subject to customs duties.

But during the inspection of the car, customs officers found 214 pieces of equipment in the luggage compartment. Among them: 44 FUJIFILM instant print cameras, 30 JBL portable speakers, 37 MARSHALL headphones, 67 APPLE gadgets, 11 SAMSUNG hard drives, 2 MARSHALL portable speakers, and more. The estimated value of the goods amounted to UAH 1 million. 200 thousand hryvnias.

On January 23, a minibus arrived at the Krakivets-Korchova checkpoint from Poland. The driver, a 43-year-old resident of Bukovyna, chose the “green corridor” lane for customs control.

However, during an in-depth inspection, customs officers found undeclared goods in the vehicle’s original packaging: 20 Alvi Prague monitors and 32 Dwin Technologies displays. The estimated cost of the equipment is 520 thousand hryvnias.

On the same day, during the inspection of a Volkswagen Golf driven by a 47-year-old resident of Ternopil region, customs officers found more than 40 gadgets at Krakivtsi: Apple iPhones 16, 16 pro, 16 pro max; Apple Watch 10, SE, Ultra 2; iPad Air 11-inch. In addition, headphones, watches, power banks, electric shavers, Redmi and Samsung phones and tablets, mini video cameras, chargers, etc. that the driver had not declared to customs officers. The estimated value of the goods reached UAH 1 million 137 thousand.

Meanwhile, Yevhen Plinsky notes the following:

“Customs officers found 107 pieces of Apple equipment in three months of 2025 out of 489,719 pieces smuggled. I think this is a success worthy of attention. The efficiency of Raikov’s Apple department was 0.022%.

All of this shows that the problem of Apple smuggling in Ukraine is systemic and requires a comprehensive approach to solving. This includes increased control at customs, transparency in investigations, and prosecution of both retailers and suppliers.

We note that a little earlier "Komersant Ukrainian" wrote earlier wrote that in March 2025, the State Tax Service announced the discovery of two large retail chains that sold smuggled Apple products, evading more than UAH 286 million in VAT. Although the names of the chains were not officially disclosed, the market associates them with Yabko and Apple.

Читайте нас у Telegram: головні новини коротко

Мандровська Олександра

Editor