Fugitive businessman Serhiy Kurchenko and a number of high-ranking officials from the Russian Federation, who organized a large-scale "appropriation" of Ukrainian enterprises in the temporarily occupied territories of Donetsk and Luhansk regions, have been notified of suspicion. From 2017 to 2021, the criminal group illegally operated mines and factories, exported products worth over 55 billion hryvnias, and supplied them to the Russian Federation and third countries. All defendants are accused of war crimes, UNN reports with reference to the Office of the Prosecutor General and the SBU.
According to the case materials, a significant number of coal mining, metallurgical, and coke-chemical industry complexes were "appropriated" and illegally operated by the Ukrainian fugitive businessman Serhiy Kurchenko and a group of Russian officials and businessmen. As the investigation established, the defendants carried out these schemes in the temporarily occupied territories of Donetsk and Luhansk regions during 2017-2021. After the "privatization" of the enterprises, they illegally used the capacities of these complexes, and also carried out the extraction and export of minerals, plundering Ukrainian resources
The Office of the Prosecutor General noted that "over 1 million files have been obtained, which revealed the criminal scheme and the individuals involved in its organization and implementation. Among the obtained documents are scanned copies of customs declarations with packages of attachments to them regarding the export of coal and other products from the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine to the Russian Federation, relevant contracts, as well as electronic correspondence of the defendants, which provides a detailed understanding of the stages of illegal actions, the contribution of accomplices, involved enterprises, export routes, recipients, etc."
As indicated, at least 441 companies from the Russian Federation, as well as 31 companies from other countries, including the Republic of Poland, the Republic of Latvia, the Republic of Lithuania, the Republic of Estonia, the Republic of Finland, the Republic of Kazakhstan, the Republic of Georgia, the Republic of Tajikistan, the Republic of Georgia, and the Republic of Belarus, became recipients of the specified products.
At the same time, it was established that "clean" documents were produced in the Russian Federation for products and raw materials exported from the temporarily occupied territory of Ukraine, indicating that the country of origin was the Russian Federation, which allowed their free sale (without potentially possible negative economic consequences, through the sale and purchase of coal mined, and products manufactured, in the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine). Given that these actions were committed during and with the use of an ongoing international armed conflict, which was well known to the accomplices, and also that these actions are prohibited by international humanitarian law, the specified illegal activity is a war crime
SBU investigators found that during the period from 2017, at least the following were exported in this way:
- coal products - over UAH 6 billion;
- metal products - UAH 47.3 billion;
- coke-chemical products - over UAH 1.6 billion.
According to the case materials, the criminal group that organized the "appropriation" of enterprises and the sale of products, in addition to Serhiy Kurchenko, also includes:
- Deputy Minister of Economic Development of the Russian Federation Nazarov S.M.;
- Head of the Department of the Ministry of Economic Development of the Russian Federation Pavlov V.O.;
- other citizens of the Russian Federation and Ukraine who defected to the enemy.
Based on the collected evidence, Security Service investigators notified all defendants of заочна підозра (in absentia suspicion) under Part 2 of Article 28, Part 1 of Article 438 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine (war crimes: plundering national values in occupied territory, use of means of warfare prohibited by international law, other violations of laws and customs of war provided for by international treaties, committed by a group of persons by prior conspiracy). The suspects face imprisonment for up to twelve years
Currently, comprehensive measures are underway to bring the suspects to criminal responsibility.
What else is known?
The Office of the Prosecutor General added that the analysis of the information obtained as a result of investigative actions, the volume of which is over 2.5 TB, lasted more than two and a half years.
To enable work with the specified quantity, volume of information, and types of files, specialists from the DKIB SBU of Ukraine created special software that allowed systematizing documents and establishing the scale of the plunder.
As a result of searches conducted this week in Ukraine at individuals who may also be involved in the specified crimes, digital information carriers containing accounting documentation were seized, which also confirms the mentioned criminal activity. Currently, it is being checked to identify other involved persons, and a corresponding criminal legal assessment will be provided.