The main military Prosecutor’s office opened a criminal case on the fact of the sale abroad of coal mined in the militia-controlled territories of Donetsk and Lugansk regions. About this on his page in Facebook wrote press Secretary of the Prosecutor General Larisa Sargan.
“Many websites posted materials, from which it becomes clear that under the overall guidance of the businessman Sergey Kurchenko’s office and other officials of several entities within 2017 on the territory of Luhansk and Donetsk regions purchase of illegally extracted coal,” said Gar.
The Prosecutor’s office began checking the material of the publication “economichna Pravda”, which asserts that coal is transported to Russia, where it sells to Turkey. The case was initiated under article “terrorist Financing”.
At the same time Serhiy Kurchenko, the owner of group of companies “Gas Ukraine” from October 2015 subject to sanctions imposed by the self-proclaimed DND. He is banned entry to the territory of the Republic and the authority of business activity.
On 6 March, the newspaper “Kommersant” wrote that the unknown market private company “New projects” received the license for exploration and production of oil and gas on the Crimean shelf. According to the sources, a possible beneficiary of the “New projects” is Kurchenko, now living in Moscow, a source in the company itself denies this.
On 13 June the Ministry of Ukraine has asked the foreign Ministry to warn eight countries about the risks of illegal shipments of breakaway Donetsk and Lugansk national republics. In the letter, the Agency offered to send information on how to identify the coal from the DNR and LNR, the Ukrainian Embassy in Turkey, the Netherlands, Spain, Moldova, Bulgaria, Belgium, Poland and Romania. In turn, the authorities of these countries, as suggested by Ukrainian officials, should inform the local ports and customs.
In may, the Ministry of coal industry of Ukraine appealed to the fiscal authorities of the country to confiscate the coal from the Donbass. In April, President Petro Poroshenko announced the possibility of confiscation of the coal mined in the territory of the breakaway DND and LNR.
In March the supplies of coal from the DNR and LNR in Ukraine were completely halted due to the blockade of roads and Railways, which staged Ukrainian nationalists. Later in the same month, Kiev has also introduced a full cargo transport blockade of the breakaway republics.
In Kiev buy coal from third countries, particularly in South Africa. The Ministry of energy has estimated that the import of South African coal will cost Ukraine $ 10 per ton more expensive than supplies from Donbas.