Editor’s note:
This article is based on Euromaidan Press’ investigative report and the documents it cited. Statements concerning corporate links, sanctions gaps, market share, cross-border flows and tax losses are attributed to the original report or the institutions it cited, and do not represent independent findings, views or positions of 2Firsts.
Key Points
● Boyko has been sanctioned by several countries, but has not been added to the EU sanctions list;
● Evapify is alleged to have financial and personal ties to Boyko and to hold a significant share of Poland’s disposable vape market;
● The Growford Institute estimates that Ukraine’s illegal e-cigarette market caused about $171 million in tax losses in 2025;
● The report points to what it describes as structural gaps in the EU sanctions process.
2Firsts,
June 1, 2026
According to an investigative report by Euromaidan Press, a Ukrainian English-language independent media outlet, Russian businessman Oleg Boyko has links to Poland’s disposable vape market, while the European Union has yet to place him on its sanctions list. The article is the first in a three-part investigation focusing on Boyko’s European business network and gaps in the Western sanctions regime.
The report said Boyko was named in the “Putin List” submitted by the U.S. Treasury Department to Congress in 2018. According to a 2Firsts review, the “Putin List” generally refers to a report submitted by the U.S. Treasury Department to Congress under Section 241 of the Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act, or CAATSA. The report identified senior Russian political figures and oligarchs, but was not itself a sanctions list. Being named in the report does not automatically mean a person is subject to U.S. sanctions.
Euromaidan Press said Boyko has been sanctioned by Ukraine, Poland, Australia and Canada, but that the EU has not imposed sanctions on him. The report also said Boyko’s lawyers succeeded in having Canada delist him in November 2023. According to the report, EU sanctions are not automatic: a member state must propose a name, and the measure must be approved unanimously.
Citing relevant materials, the report said Evapify is a major distributor in Poland’s disposable vape market and has financial and personal ties to Boyko. It also said the company reached roughly half of Poland’s disposable vape market within about two years of its launch.
Euromaidan Press said these disposable vape products are transported across the border from Polish and Slovak warehouses into Ukraine, where they enter largely untaxed grey-market channels, affecting Ukraine’s wartime public finances.
Citing estimates from the Growford Institute, the report said Ukraine lost more than 7.6 billion hryvnia, or about $171 million, in tax revenue to the illegal e-cigarette market in 2025. The estimated losses included about 5.6 billion hryvnia, or $126 million, in unpaid excise tax and another 2 billion hryvnia, or $45 million, in value-added tax.
The report also said Ukrainian border officers recently seized smuggled vape products worth more than 2 million hryvnia, or about $45,000, hidden under the floor of a vehicle at Ustyluh.
On the sanctions background, Euromaidan Press said the Court of Justice of the European Union on March 26, 2026 upheld sanctions against five Russian businessmen. According to the report, the court held that a person’s significant economic position in Russia can itself justify sanctions, without the need to prove personal wrongdoing.
Euromaidan Press argued that Boyko fits this sanctions logic, but that the EU has not initiated the process because no member state has formally proposed his name.
The article also said Boyko obtained Serbian citizenship in March 2025. According to the report, for a sanctioned Russian citizen, a Serbian passport may make it easier to navigate European banking and travel systems.
Euromaidan Press said the next articles in the series will examine how Boyko-linked vape businesses took root in Poland and how they entered the Ukrainian market.
（Cover Image source: Euromaidan Press ）
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