16.09.2024 Business of Occupiers

The Dirty Eight: Coal Trade in the DNR, Terrorist Financing, and Covering Up for Servants of the People

Нардеп-утікач із ОПЗЖ за 5 днів до вторгнення РФ орендував велику квартиру в Польщі і відтоді не повертався

Bloomberg writes that Russia’s offensive in Donbas may force Ukrainian steelmakers to import coal.

The article says that Ukrainian steelmakers at the only coking coal mine in Ukraine that already borders the frontline may be forced to import coal if Russian troops seize it, which would be another blow to the industry.

Nevertheless, Russian aggression in no way prevents the current government from making money from agreements with representatives of the Russian Federation.

With the support of top officials such as the Minister for Strategic Industries of Ukraine, the Minister of Energy and the Prime Minister of Ukraine, MP from the odious OPFL Fedir Khrystenko continues to do business with Russia, receive huge kickbacks for judgments of Russian business structures with coal consumers, and communicate with representatives of the “criminal world” of L/DPR.

Khrystenko is a native of Donetsk region. In 2014, he, like many residents of the Donetsk region, moved to Kyiv to escape the war. Here he started his “independent business” selling coal. The essence of this business was to sell low-quality raw materials to huge market players such as SCM and Privat Group.

At that time, Khrystenko created different earnings schemes for different corporations. For example, work with DTEK was organized as follows: Fedir would buy coal at low prices, take it to Kharkiv Coke, make coke there, and send the coke to Privat Group (mainly to the Nikopol Ferroalloy Plant). Everyone lost from this scheme, except for Khristenko himself.

DTEK lost out on profits, and Nikopol Ferroalloy Plant received coke and coke nuts of poor quality (but there were people at NFP who covered up the scheme). To date, Khristenko has been expelled from Privat Group and blacklisted.

Because of his actions, Khristenko’s companies and he personally were blacklisted by large corporations. In addition, a number of criminal proceedings have been opened against them. Therefore, in order to “slow down” the investigation of cases against his own business, Khristenko chose the easiest way – to become a member of parliament. Thus, immediately after receiving the mandate, the proceedings came to a standstill: investigations are not being conducted and court hearings have been postponed. There is reason to believe that the head of the Servant of the People faction, David Arakhamia, who no longer seems to hide his cooperation with OPFL and his influence on the country’s law enforcement and judicial systems, helped to instantly “forget” the criminal dossier of MP Khrystenko.

In addition, supported by his status as an MP and new acquaintances thanks to his purchased seat in the OPFL, Khrystenko found a way to Russian producers – the company MelTEK LLC. With the latter, Khrystenko agreed to supply coal with a kickback of $3 per ton to his favorite. Ryzhenkov, an old friend of Khristenko’s, helped to get the Russians to work with Metinvest.

But this was not enough, so Khristenko registered a new company in Switzerland – Evenor Energy SA. Through this company, he is actively lobbying for the resource of the Russian Sibantracite to be allocated to Metinvest. Another company of Khristenko’s, Heating Systems OU, Estonia, has been actively supplying Sibantracite anthracite coal to ArcelorMittal Kryvyi Rih for 4 years, earning an average of $25 per ton. In the last year of cooperation with AMKR alone, the company supplied 300 thousand tons and earned over USD 7 million. And if you calculate the total profit, the amount will be even more interesting…

It is worth reminding you that this business is owned by a current member of the Ukrainian parliament. By the way, during the full-scale invasion, Khristenko ignored voting more than 1000 times, as he left for abroad a few days before the Russian offensive. At the same time, according to the Speaker of the Verkhovna Rada, Ruslan Stefanchuk, it is impossible to deprive MPs of their mandate for absenteeism. And for cooperation with Russia and the DPR terrorist group?

By the way, Khrystenko’s father-in-law, Serhiy Bryukhovetsky, still owns a business in the occupied territory of Horlivka. We are talking about Spets-Remmash. On December 11, 2014, the occupation authorities registered the company under the so-called local “laws”. Moreover, even after the re-registration, the co-owner is still listed as Serhiy Bryukhovetsky.

As before Russia occupied parts of Donetsk and Luhansk regions, Spets-Remmash repairs equipment for local mines. According to open data, in 2020 alone, the company earned more than 5 million rubles. That was about UAH 2 million at the time.

Conducting active economic activity, Bryukhovetskyi’s business pays taxes to the local “budget” of the DPR. For example, in 7 months of 2021, the company paid at least 3.5 million rubles (approximately UAH 1.4 million) to the treasury of the occupation administration.

However, in 2021, Bryukhovetskyi, who actively cooperates with the occupation authorities and finances terrorism, received a $60 million loan from the state-owned Ukreximbank to buy the Sky Mall in Kyiv. An interesting story, isn’t it? It is strange that the NBU management and Chairman Pyshnyi were not interested in this issue and simply allowed supporters of Russia and the DPR to make money in the capital.

Небеса раздора: полная история конфликта вокруг киевского ТРЦ Sky Mall — Асоціація рітейлерів України

Moreover, when the situation became publicized and journalists visited the management of Ukreximbank, the latter simply attacked the media representatives, refusing to provide any explanations.

Sky Mall’s activities have also been linked to a prominent Odesa businessman, Volodymyr Galanternik, who owns several shopping centers in Odesa. It is likely that not only his son-in-law Khrystenko, but also Galanternik, a multimillionaire and “shadowy owner of Odesa,” is behind the borrower and the documentary owner of the mall.

However, the question still remains: how can a traitor, a fugitive, a representative of the L/DPR criminal circles who continues to work with the holdings of the erafia remain a member of parliament?

We can see how the “dirty eight” of oligarchs, politicians, fugitives, supervisors, controllers, and representatives of the occupation authorities have successfully developed in Ukraine.

We are actively investigating Khrystenko’s activities and the fact that he took over the Sky Mall in Kyiv. We are preparing documents for the National Security and Defense Council, the Armed Forces of Ukraine, and the NAPC to initiate sanctions, nationalization of the shopping center and other assets, and inclusion of Khrystenko, his father-in-law, Bryukhovetskyi, and their legal entities in the list of terrorist sponsors.

We urge you to do the same report any known information about the Russian trail to current officials, businesses and oligarchs.

Did you witness a crime?

Let us know about it. We will help protect the violated rights!

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