Coal supply is a sensitive topic for Ukraine. Since 2014, the occupying country has almost completely cut off Ukrainian opportunities for the extraction and supply of these raw materials from Donbass.
Subsequently, the scandalous “Rotterdam+” scheme appeared, for which coal was supposed to come from South Africa, but in fact was delivered from the temporarily occupied territories. Big names, reports from law enforcement officers that the “scheming” has finally been covered up, and, in the end, the confession of state traitor Viktor Medvedchuk about how deliveries from ORDLO and Russia took place.
And now a Dmitry Kovalenko appears on the energy market, who introduces himself as a coal businessman and almost saves Europe thanks to diversified supplies. Journalists found out who Kovalenko is and how, in fact, South African, Colombian or any other coal he declared turns out to be Russian.
November 2019 The Security Service of Ukraine reports on the exposure of a large-scale financing scheme for terrorist organizations “L/DPR” due to coal mining and subsequent deliveries to Ukraine and European countries; some organizers are detained. The matter concerned supplies from the temporarily occupied territories, in particular for the energy company Centrenergo, for control over which at that time several big shots in the energy market were fighting.
Like any scandal in the economic sphere, this led to a redistribution of spheres of influence. Companies close to the oligarch Igor Kolomoisky, suspected of trading Ordlov coal in Ukraine, were replaced by the then unknown Swiss company Adelon AG.
The media already stated then that the company was in fact not Swiss, but belonged to immigrants from Donetsk who moved to Dnepr. It was at this time that the name of Dmitry Kovalenko, the real head of Adelon AG, came up.
In December 2019, the press service of Adelon AG issued an official press release in which it stated that it has nothing to do with the supply of coal from the occupied Donbass and does not do business in Ukraine at all. Here is a direct quote: Adelon AG is engaged exclusively in the supply of coal. from the Kuzbass corner basin (RF) and does not work with producers in the Rostov region, nor with mines in the occupied territories of Ukraine... Since Adelon AG does not supply coal to Ukraine and does not do business here, we were surprised that the company's name appeared in some The media, and even with unreliable wording.” AG Dmitry Kovalenko completely denied that she was conducting any business in Ukraine.
A little over two years have passed, and Russia has fully invaded Ukraine. Ukrainian businessman Dmitry Kovalenko officially began to call himself the beneficiary of the Swiss Adelon AG. The same one that was engaged in the supply of Russian coal even after Russia’s occupation of Crimea and the start of hostilities in the Donbass. Only now he is trying to sell the story that he supplies coal from South Africa, Australia, the USA and the like for European consumers. It seems that there has never been any coal from Russia and there is not now.
In fact, Kovalenko’s cooperation with the aggressor country did not stop even after February 24, 2022. The media gained access to documents from companies associated with Dmitry Kovalenko, in which it is written in black and white that the country of origin of the coal supplied to them is Russia.
Some of these documents connect Dmitry Kovalenko’s companies with the Russian MelTEK LLC. The latter belongs to businessman and deputy chairman of the Legislative Assembly of the Chelyabinsk Region of the Russian Federation, Konstantin Strukov.
Interestingly, the Russian media noticed the “betrayal” of Strukov, who ranks 84 on the Russian Forbes list with a fortune of $1.6 billion. They suspect him of trading coal with “unfriendly countries,” in particular with Ukraine. “Information has appeared in the public space that Meltek is a supplier of coal to the company Azurit DWC-LLC, registered in the name of the Romanian Chemal Giumali. However, the real owners may be Ukrainian businessmen. From them, Strukov coal travels all over the world... The fate of Meltek in its subsidiaries is under the burden of the state-owned Gazprombank. It turns out that he sponsors the supply of coal to countries that the Russian authorities call unfriendly,” writes the hostile press.
The “real owner” of Azurit DWC-LLC is Ukrainian businessman Dmitry Kovalenko. The company is registered in Dubai and is used as a “pad” through which financial transactions are carried out to minimize the tax burden, as well as to “blind the eyes.”
At the same time, Dmitry Kovalenko has another company in the UAE - Plaimp SFP limited. Essentially, it is something like a credit union that acts as a debt buyer. As can be seen from the additional agreement dated July 7, 2022, one of these debtors is the company of Russian billionaire Konstantin Strukov “MelTEK”.
Anastasia Timanova is listed as the director of the Dubai company Plaimp SFP limited. This woman is very closely connected with Dmitry Kovalenko. In particular, she was a beneficiary of the Shakhterskaya State Farm Fund from 2016 to December 2020. Since July 2011, Shakhterskaya was registered in Dnepr, from December to November 2011 - in Shakhtersk (Donetsk region), from 2015 to April 2024 in Mariupol, and now in Kyiv.
According to Ukrainian registers, as of April 2024, one of the beneficiaries of the enterprise was Evgeniy Klimenko, and earlier Dmitry Kovalenko could be seen on the list of founders.
The Ukrainian register contains a note that since June 1, 2023, the Shakhterskaya State Farm Fund has been included in the Unified State Register of Legal Entities of the Russian Federation. At the same time, according to the Russian register, this enterprise has been paying taxes into the Kremlin’s pocket since November 2022. In the list of founders in the register of the occupying country we see the same name as in the Ukrainian one - Evgeniy Klimenko. Along with him, Vladimir Yakovenko and Pavel Vorobyov are noted among the former leaders. These same individuals previously led the Shakhterskaya State Farm in Ukraine, together with coal businessman Dmitry Kovalenko and the director of his Dubai company Anastasia Timanova. Consequently, the same people manage the enterprise both in Ukraine and in Russia.
Kovalenko, Klimenko, Vorobyov and Timanova are connected by several other companies: LLC GOF Anthracite, LLC Khristoforugol, LLC Agrofirma Yasenovskaya. The latter, although it contains the combination “agro” in its name, is not involved in agriculture. It trades in coal, and one of its founders, Yuriy Semenovich Fesenko, was on the list of sanctioned persons of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine from 2017 to 2021.
Among the business partners of coal trader Dmir Kovalenko there is another interesting person - Yuri Balaban. Together with him, they headed a number of Ukrainian coal companies. But their tandem showed up much more clearly in foreign registries. Kovalenko and Balaban appeared in a massive downpour of legal documents from Mossac Fonseca, known as “Panamagate.”
Both “businessmen” were among the shareholders of the company Bremer international limited, registered offshore in the British Virgin Islands. Together with Kovalenko and Balaban, the shareholder of this company was a company from the UAE, whose business partner was under international sanctions. The company from the BVI, by the way, is still operating and continues to conduct its activities.
Russian media wrote back in 2019 that Bremer international limited, through its shareholder, is actually a clone of the Swiss Adelon AG, which is managed by Kovalenko and which first traded coal with ORDLO, and now, according to documents, continues to transport goods from the Russian Federation, despite the full-scale war
Sources in political circles report that Dmitry Kovalenko and Yuri Balaban are not just “no names” in the energy market. Since the early 2000s, they have worked as security guards for the notorious Unified Energy Systems of Ukraine corporation, which was controlled by former Prime Minister Yulia Yulia Tymoshenko. Over time, the “businessmen” switched to working under the “Donetsk people”, who put them in charge of supplying coal from Donbass.
Now Dmitry Kovalenko is actively promoting himself as an international trader and a major donor for the Ukrainian army. This is evidenced by numerous similar publications in the media that are paid for. But you can't argue with the facts. Neither Swiss, nor Dubai, nor even Polish registration of companies associated with Dmitry Kovalenko can hide the real state of affairs. Trade with the enemy through gaskets, interrupted transit, and incomprehensible coal transshipment schemes continue in full swing. Thus, disguised Russian raw materials also appear on the European market. And this should be of great interest to law enforcement agencies in EU countries.
