According to the technical regulation, which was approved after the introduction of martial law, the import of fuel from Belarus and Russia, as well as legal entities from these countries, is prohibited. However, it was found that Ukrainian companies could be involved in schemes that involved the supply of Belarusian fuel through Latvia and Estonia with the help of forged documents.
This is stated in the investigation of the Belarusian "Radio Svaboda". Journalists report that Ukrainian companies used forged Lithuanian certificates to import fuel from Latvia and Estonia.
Fuel supply scheme.
According to the Ukrainian Energy Customs, from December 29, 2022 to January 4, 2023, the Yuma Trade company moved 50.3 tons of diesel fuel from Estonia to Ukraine. The registration was carried out on the basis of the quality certificate of the Lithuanian company Orlen Lietuva.
However, it later turned out that the Lithuanian company did not issue such a certificate. According to customs documents, from December 29, 2022 to March 1, 2023, the enterprise imported almost 300 tons of diesel fuel of unknown origin with unknown physical and chemical characteristics under the document "obtained illegally". For each such delivery, the director of the Ukrainian company was fined in the amount of 50% of the price of oil products.
"According to a number of decisions of Ukrainian courts, the Orlen Lietuva company knew about the use of its fake certificates, but it is not known whether it requested an investigation by the Lithuanian law enforcement authorities. The company did not answer the questions," the journalists said.
At the same time, according to their data, Cypriot companies were engaged in the transportation of fuel to Baltic ports, one of them is Balticpetroleum LTD, registered in Limassol (Cyprus) in the name of Latvian citizen Armands Sadauskas. According to Latvian media, he also controlled oil terminals where customs documents were issued. When Latvia found out about this method of supplying fuel from Russia, the companies began to claim that they were carried out under previous contracts, and later - from Kazakhstan.
Belarusian fuel, as journalists found, was delivered by sea from the Estonian port of Muuga to the Latvian port of Riga, where it was stored and processed in the territory of the Pars Terminals LLC free economic zone.
Tankers under the Russian flag and under the flag of other countries, in particular Malta, were used for transportation. In the port of Rysa, petroleum products were transshipped into gasoline trucks or automobile tanks, which were transported to Ukraine by road transport.
Diesel was transported to Estonia by rail, but from January 1, 2023, the state enterprise Operail announced the termination of such transportation. "As of January 1, 2023, Operail will not transport cargo from Russia and Belarus, but we continue to transport cargo from other countries through Russia and Belarus," the company's official statement reads.
Judgments, fines and companies.
According to investigators, one of the district courts of Kyiv fined the head of the Ukrainian LLC "YUMA Trade" 1,042,664 hryvnias for violating customs rules for importing diesel fuel for sale on the territory of Ukraine. These rulings and the accompanying fines are significant because they indicate violations of the law and negative consequences for Ukrainian companies that may have participated in the scheme.
The Ukrainian company "Yuma Trade" with the authorized capital of 10 thousand hryvnias has been operating on the Ukrainian market since June 7, 2018. For the pre-war year 2021, the company's income was 18,031,300 hryvnias. After the start of the war, it almost doubled to 39,146,200 hryvnias in 2022. However, in 2023, the net profit decreased again - to 234,600 hryvnias. The number of employees of the company has also decreased from six in 2021 to two in 2023.
Small intermediary companies in the field of fuel supply also began to be established in Ukraine. So, investigators say that Pronafta LLC appeared in Rivne Oblast, Cranelight LLC in Dnipropetrovsk Oblast, G Oil LLC in Ternopil Oblast, West Oil Gas Trading LLC and Carpathian Fuel Company LLC in Lviv Oblast. ". In general, according to the investigation, about 14,000 enterprises are registered in Ukraine, the main activity of which is the wholesale trade of petroleum products in the territories adjacent to the country of Belarus.
Violations of legislation in the field of fuel supply have become a problem that requires an immediate response. Conducting a thorough investigation and taking measures to prevent similar incidents in the future is extremely important to ensure safety and economic stability.
Ukrainian companies used these schemes in violation of the law. Court decisions and investigations show that the certificates were forged and that the fuel supplies may have been of Russian or Belarusian origin. This situation has potential implications for the country's security and economy, so it is important to conduct a thorough investigation and take measures to prevent similar incidents in the future.
