The director of the joint -stock company "Equator" plant from Nikolaev, Yuri Nedelko, was found guilty of collaborative activity through the supply of ship climate equipment to Russia. According to the court, he was fined 170 thousand hryvnias and was forbidden to occupy executive positions for 10 years.
The scheme of supply of this equipment was carefully planned. In 2021, Nedelko received a proposal from the founder of the Russian JSC "Nivan" from Nizhny Novgorod on the manufacture and supply of climate installations. Already on February 1, 2022, a treaty was signed, which initiated a complex scheme of international supply to bypass. Several companies were involved in the operation, including the Czech Impuls Energo SRO, the German NP Trade GmbH and the Ukrainian LLC "Intrade Energo". The Equator plant produced equipment that was exported to Lithuania through the false firms and then came to Russia.
Nedelko, while in Sofia (Bulgaria) after leaving there in April 2022, continued to control the enterprise remotely and organize deliveries to Russia. In order to hide the origin of the products, during customs clearance as a manufacturer, a substantive company of Barcelona, Lesco Wool Company SA was indicated as a manufacturer
This scheme lasted at least until January 2024. In January 2025, he did not enter into an agreement with a prosecutor's office in which he pleaded guilty. The court decided to impose a fine in the amount of UAH 170 thousand and obliged it to transfer 4 million hryvnias to support the Armed Forces of Ukraine. In addition, he was deprived of the right to occupy leadership positions for 10 years.
This is not the first time when the equator plant is at the center of the scandal. In 2018, the court already fined one of the employees of the plant for the supply of such equipment for the needs of the Russian Navy.
This incident has again evidence of problems in controlling the foreign economic activity of Ukrainian enterprises and the importance of responsibility of the heads of such companies.
