How the Ousted Yanukovych Family Still Has a Dirty Grip on Ukraine's Occupied Coal Mines

Ukraine’s ousted former president, Viktor Yanukovych, and his son, Oleksandr Yanukovych, have a long history of corruption and exploiting Ukraine through illegal coal mining.

Viktor—known as one of Putin’s many “puppets”—was, and still is, heavily influenced by Moscow, serving Russia’s interests, at the expense of Ukraine’s sovereignty. 

Ukraine endured systemic corruption for decades, with Viktor and his associates—sometimes called “the family”—at the heart of it, stealing tens of billions of dollars from Ukraine between 2010 and 2014.

Viktor Yanukovych ran the Ukrainian government like a criminal organization, enabling grand corruption and profiting from diverse schemes.

Financial Crimes Enforcement Network of the US Department of the Treasury

Since being ousted by Ukraine in 2014, both father and son found asylum in Russia but are still exploiting Ukraine’s coal-rich regions by utilising the Kremlin’s brutal occupation for their financial gains. 

Oleksandr is linked to the largest exporter of illegally mined coal from Russian-occupied territories of Ukraine, making millions of dollars by shipping nearly half a million tons abroad using an offshore scheme, a recent investigation by Istories revealed. 

Since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, in the public eye, Viktor Yanukovych remains largely “simmering on the sidelines”, occasionally making Russian TV appearances in occupied territories. While his son continues to exploit Ukraine, making huge profits from Russia’s illegal invasion. 

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Corruption by the Yanukovych family 

Viktor Yanukovych is from the Donetsk region of Ukraine and was once the Governor of Donetsk from 1997 to 2002.

During Viktor’s presidency in 2010, Oleksandr had a company called Swiss Mako Trading, exporting coal from Ukraine’s state-owned mines abroad. In 2013, Forbes listed him as one of the richest citizens in the Donetsk region with a capital of half a billion dollars.

During this time, Oleksandr’s businesses were tied to several offshore shell companies. These companies and others closely tied to Viktor illicitly diverted millions of dollars. After Viktor fled Kyiv, journalists uncovered a trove of documents at his Mezhyhirya residence linking him to companies that may have held some of his assets.

In 2015, the US Treasury put Oleksandr on a sanctions list for plundering Ukraine’s state assets.

In 2020, the FinCEN  Files revealed the documents that mapped out how the Yanukovych family and their associates were involved in state fund embezzlement and the companies that were linked to them.

Yanukovych's illegal coal mining before his ousting 

Before Russia’s initial invasion of Ukraine in 2014, Donbas was the coal heart of Ukraine. In 2012, coal production in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions was over 83 million tons. Coal mining has always been key to the development of energy and industry in Ukraine, specifically in the Eastern regions. 

In May 2014, an investigation by the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) found that companies linked to both Yanukovych senior and junior routinely legalized and sold black-market coal.

Coal miners’ trade unions estimated that there was around 6 to 7 million tons of illegal coal being mined, which was then worth around $700 million, according to a Nov. 22, 2012 statement by the Independent Trade Union of Ukraine and local union of Donbas (Eastern Ukrainian coal-mining area).

The OCCRP found a series of links indicating Viktor’s direct connection to a network of businessmen who took over the trade in illegal coal. As illegal pits began appearing, pits in legal state coal mines were being shut down.

From the 102 state-owned coal-mining enterprises in the early 2000s, miners were being placed on unpaid leave and their salaries were being delayed. They openly blamed illegal coal as the root of their problems.

The Yanukovych family and their vast network created the country’s largest shadow industry with multi-million turnovers according to OCCRP.

According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), in 2022, legal coal accounted for nearly 22% of Ukraine’s total energy supply. Since then, its importance has only grown as mines have been occupied, forced to close, or destroyed due to Russia’s invasion. Every year in August, Ukraine celebrates Miner's Day, symbolizing the important role of the legal coal industry in the economy and society. 

“Coal is very important,” said Serguiï Faraonov, head of the production department at the mine, speaking to Agence France-Presse (AFP) in 2024, proudly stating that his workers are soldiers on “the energy front.”

According to stories, due to ongoing Russian aggression, the current mining volumes are a mere 5 million tons a year. Yet, the industry has still attracted illicit businessmen linked to Oleksandr to the occupied regions. 

The Ghost train station exporting Ukrainian coal 

Uspenskaya railroad station—dubbed “Bermuda Triangle”—was a border station between Russia and Ukraine, now dividing Rostov Oblast and the occupied Donetsk region.

Uspenskaya is a small station with only four tracks and no coal-loading equipment. Istories reported that, according to customs declarations, coal is loaded here onto wagons and sent to the west. Sometimes, several thousand railcars were supposedly stationed there at once, which the investigation says is “impossible”. 

The coal is listed as “Russian” on its customs declarations. However, it’s Ukrainian coal, illegally mined in the Russian-occupied territories of Donetsk and Luhansk regions. 

Who is involved in the illegal shipment of Ukrainian coal?

Using customs data, Istories compiled a list of the largest coal exporters from Russia and found Energoresurs, who exported almost half a million tons of coal from Russia in 2023 and 2024.

Energoresurs is registered in an office on the outskirts of Rostov-on-Don, with a list of company suppliers from Russian-occupied territories; Torgovyy Dom “Donskiye Ugli”, RTK Vostokugol, Komsomolets Donbasa mine, Zhdanovskaya mine, Impeks-Don and others.

Alexei Ivanov, the official owner of Energoresurs, wasn’t previously in the coal market, but has been working in various law firms associated with Oleksandr since 2016.

The director of Energoresurs, Pavel Zemlyakov, is listed as “Pavel DRFC” (Donbas Settlement and Financial Center) in the phonebook, Istories reported. DRFC is a group of several mining and processing plants whose ownership has been attributed to Oleksandr.

Energoresurs’ annual report shows that in 2023, the company received a $7 million loan from Sl Holdings Limited, which is registered in Cyprus and was previously owned by Eduard Slinko, the former CEO of Oleksandr‘s aforementioned Mako holding company. 

The Cypriot company is now indirectly owned by Daria Lavrynets, who has the same name as the director and owner of a company called Tursiop. Before her, Tursiop was owned by Tatyana Kotova, whose phone number is listed as “Tatyana Yanukovych’s House”.

Energoresurs received another loan in 2021 from Serhiy Yermolchuk, then CEO of Praid M., and according to reports, Oleksandr may own real estate in Moscow through Praid M.

How the illegally mined coal is sold for huge profits

Energoresurs buys coal from different suppliers in the Donetsk region and transports it to Turkey by rail and sea. Energoresurs then sells it at a very low price to an offshore company called Energy Union, which then sells it anywhere, at any price it wants. 

This scheme only works if both Energoresurs and Energy Union are affiliated.

Energy Union was also registered in Rostov-on-Don in July 2022 with the director named Artem Opolinsky and is an employee of Energoresurs. 

In 2022, the EU  imposed a ban on the purchase of coal from Russia; before that, Bulgaria, Estonia, Czechia, and Romania were receiving coal from Energoresurs. Now, almost all of it goes to Turkey, and between 2021 and 2023, Energoresurs generated 3.5 billion rubles, more than 42 million dollars, in revenue.