PJSC Centrenergo energy generation company reportedly purchases coal from the occupied territory of Donbas, eastern Ukraine, through a ”criminal” firm, according to the Nashi Groshi investigatory journalism website.
Centrenergo has recently published a report, saying it continues cooperation with Donbas coal management enterprise LLC, which was contracted last year to sell coal at a cost of UAH 528 million, Nashi Groshi wrote.
This firm is co-owned by Dmytro Burlaka, who is residing in the militant-occupied city of Donetsk.
He earlier was the founder of the Makiyivska coal enrichment factory, along with Vsevolod Bukhtiyarov and Vitaliy Beliakov. Beliakov is the former director of a coal enterprise incorporated in the Donbas Payment and Financial Center, which was controlled by ousted president Viktor Yanukovych`s associates.
Bukhtiyarov and Beliakov were among the founders of Svarozhech LLC, which supplied coal to the then state-owned Donbasenergo company during Yanukovych`s presidency.
Donbas businessman Rinat Akhmetov`s DTEK Trading LLC was, for the first time, mentioned in Centrenergo`s reports as being among the suppliers.
The largest contract, worth UAH 523 million, has recently been won by coal enrichment factory No. 105, which is registered to the names of female residents of the occupied Donetsk – Tamara Lysenko and Vitoria Ostapenko.
Last year, Centrenergo bought coal from that factory at a cost of UAH 84 million. That purchase was investigated by the Prosecutor General Office of Ukraine, in a case opened against the then-director of the electricity company, Ihor Balabanov, who was an aide to the MP from the Petro Poroshenko Bloc Serhiy Tryhubenko, Nashi Groshi wrote. Balabanov left Centrenergo, where he was replaced by Oleh Kozemko.
New Ukrainian Prosecutor Yuriy Lutsenko appointed Tryhubenko`s brother to head the prosecutor`s office in Kherson region. There is no information whether Balabanov has either been arrested or is wanted by authorities.
Nashi Groshi emphasizes that Centrenergo published a report with data about those coal purchase contracts concluded in the first quarter of 2016, however, the report has no information regarding when this information was obtained.
The report was published in the Visnyk Derzhavnykh Zakupivel state procurements bulletin on June 21, though it should have been published in April, it acknowledged.
For unknown reasons, Centrenergo, in 2016, stopped publishing official statements about coal supplies from Russia and the occupied areas in Donetsk and Luhansk regions, although it had previously issued quarterly reports.
”The recent report says there are about 10 contracts worth UAH 3.77 billion. Neither the amount of coal shipments nor the price per tonne is mentioned in these instances, although this information was reported before. Therefore, one cannot compare the purchasing price with the price of anthracite coal set at UAH 1,364 per tonne, which Centrenergo was then authorized to include in the rate of electricity it generates,” Nashi Groshi wrote.
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