[Translation prepared by Business & Human Rights Resource Centre]

In Dnipro, a CEO of a plant that supplied sanctioned fittings for the construction of military bases in Russia was arrested, 13 October 2023

The Security Service of Ukraine reports the liquidation of a sales scheme to Russia for strategically important components for water supply systems for critical and military infrastructure, manufactured at a plant in Dnipro.

According to the intelligence service, participants in the scheme secretly transported wholesale quantities of pipeline fittings (sets of DN1200 butterfly valves) to the aggressor country to regulate the flow of liquids in utility networks.

“First of all, these products were needed by Russian customers for the arrangement of military bases and points of temporary deployment of occupation groups on the territory of the Russian Federation and in temporarily occupied regions of Ukraine,” the report notes.

According to data available from the Security Service of Ukraine (SSU), during 2022, dealers illegally exported several batches of reinforcement components to Russia worth more than 2 million hryvnia. As the investigation established, the director of a specialized enterprise in Dnipro and his subordinate were involved in organising illegal activities.

After the start of the full-scale invasion and the introduction of appropriate sanctions by Ukraine, they remotely contacted their customers from Russia and jointly developed a mechanism for the illegal export of the mentioned products.

To implement the deal, they attracted several controlled companies in the Middle East, which purchased goods from the Dnipropetrovsk plant allegedly for their own needs, but after receiving Ukrainian equipment, they immediately transported it to the Russian Federation. To disguise the scheme, the organizers entered false information into financial and economic documentation.

During searches at the production facilities and premises of the defendants, computers, mobile phones, accounting documents and draft records were found confirming illegal activities...

The investigation continues to establish all the circumstances of the crime and bring the perpetrators to justice. In addition, based on materials from the SSU, corporate rights and bank accounts of a Dnepropetrovsk enterprise supplier of sanctioned goods in the Russian Federation were seized.