{"id":198449,"date":"2026-08-03T22:56:48","date_gmt":"2026-08-03T19:56:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/198449\/"},"modified":"2026-08-03T23:02:31","modified_gmt":"2026-08-03T20:02:31","slug":"belarus-sends-two-trainloads-of-wood-to-central-asia-via-route-used-to-bypass-eu-sanctions","status":"publish","type":"articles","link":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/198449\/","title":{"rendered":"Belarus sends two trainloads of wood to Central Asia via route used to bypass EU sanctions"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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August 3, Pozirk<\/em>.<\/strong>\u00a0Two trainloads of wood products have been sent from Belarus to Uzbekistan within one week using a route that investigators and past reporting have linked to sanctions-evasion schemes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to Belarusian Railways, the first train left Or\u0161a in northern Belarus as part of the \u201cSlavic Caravan\u201d project on July 30 and reached Kazakhstan by August 3. The total weight of its cargo, which includes wood products, food and chemicals, is said to be 3,800 tons.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The second train departed from Or\u0161a with more than 4,000 tons of wood products and high-value food cargo from various Belarusian regions, with part of the shipment destined for Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Belarusian Railways says that demand for the service is growing and that the route could expand to other markets in Central and South Asia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Following Russia\u2019s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 with Belarus\u2019 support, the EU banned all Belarusian wood imports. Soon after, exports of wood from Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan to the EU surged, 74 times and roughly 18,000 times, respectively, which the Belarusian Investigative Center (BIC) attributed to re-exports of Belarusian products with the help of falsified documents. The Center reported that Kyrgyz companies linked to Belarus openly offered to ship pellets to Europe \u201cby the wagonload\u201d using fake papers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

BIC said in 2024 that Belarusian wood continued entering Europe disguised as goods from Central Asia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In January 2025, Earthsight reported that the EU had imported \u20ac1.5 billion worth of Belarusian- and Russian-made plywood between July 2022 and October 2024, re-labeled as originating from countries such as China, Kazakhstan, Georgia and Turkey. Major importers included Poland, Estonia, Germany, Greece, Italy, Spain and Portugal, with an estimated 22 containers of plywood subject to sanctions entering the EU daily.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Guardian later reported similar shipments reaching the United Kingdom. In 2025, Poland blacklisted Kazakhstan-registered QARTREE LLP for exporting Belarusian and Russian plywood to Europe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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