Profiting from war: Yanukovych's son lucrative coal exports from occupied Ukrainian territories
An offshore scheme is allegedly allowing anthracite sales to bypass taxes, with the son of former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych reportedly at the helm.
According to Russian outlet Important Stories, Oleksandr Yanukovych is profiting substantially by exporting coal from occupied areas of Ukraine to Turkey.
The outlet notes that Energorresurs, a company based in Rostov-on-Don, has shipped nearly half a million tonnes of coal abroad over the past two years. Coal deliveries are primarily made to an offshore company in Turkey at low prices, enabling savings on duties while allowing the offshore firm to sell the coal anywhere at any price. Shipments pass through the Uspenskaya railway station in Russia's Krasnodar region, where thousands of coal wagons sometimes wait, marked as Russian coal despite originating from Ukrainian territories like Donetsk and Luhansk.
The journalists analyzed customs data of Russian coal exports, discovering Energorresurs' role in exporting almost half a million tonnes of coal from Russia in 2023 and 2024. The company's coal sources include enterprises from the Donbas region like Trading House Don Coal, RTC East Coal, Comsomol Donbassa mine, Zhdanovskaya mine, and Impex-Don among others.
Officially owned by Aleksey Ivanov, who has worked with various legal entities connected to Oleksandr Yanukovych since 2016, Energorresurs is managed by Pavel Zemlyakov, known as Pavel DFSC in some phone directories—in reference to the Donbas Financial and Settlement Center, historically linked to Yanukovych.
In 2023, the company secured a $7 million loan at 1% interest from Sl Holdings Limited, a Cyprus-registered enterprise formerly owned by Eduard Slynko, an ex-CEO of Yanukovych Jr.'s holding, Mako. The present owner, Daria Lavrinets, maintains ties to the Yanukovych family through multiple businesses.
Energorresurs sources coal from various Donbas suppliers and transports it to Turkey using rail and maritime routes, selling it to Energy Union in the British Virgin Islands at low prices (averaging 5,700 rubles per tonne in 2024). This strategy minimizes export duties, giving Energy Union flexibility in future sales.
Before 2022, coal from Energorresurs reached Bulgaria, Estonia, Czechia, and Romania. Following the Ukraine war's outbreak, nearly all coal shipments were redirected to Turkey.
Between 2021 and 2023, Energorresurs generated 3.5 billion rubles ($35 million) in revenue through low transfer pricing, reportedly aided by its close connection to Oleksandr Yanukovych.