Director of agricultural firm sent to prison in Mykolaiv for supplying grain to occupiers

In Mykolaiv, a court has taken into custody a man suspected of running an agribusiness in the occupied part of Zaporizhzhia region and cooperating with Russia. According to the investigation, after re-registration under Russian law, the company paid taxes to the budget of the aggressor country.

This was reported by the Center for Public Investigations.

According to the investigation, the man, who currently works as the security director of AIT-76 LLC in Pervomaisk, is suspected of running an agribusiness in the occupied part of Zaporizhzhia region on behalf of Russia. According to the Judiciary of Ukraine, the suspect is Viktor Karpenko.

Information about the suspect. SCREEN SHOT: court.gov.ua

Investigators believe that in August 2022, he decided to establish the production and sale of agricultural products, cooperating with Russian structures and bypassing Ukrainian restrictions.

The case file states that the Ukrainian LLC Progress-C was re-registered under Russian law and became LLC Progress-C in the occupied territory of Zaporizhzhia region. After that, the company was allegedly included in Russian tax, social and pension registers, and the suspect was identified as its director.

The owner and managers of Progress-Si LLC. SCREENSHOT: YouControl

Law enforcement officers claimed that the company cultivated land in the Melitopol district, hired employees, used rented equipment and warehouses, purchased seed and negotiated sales with representatives of Russian business.

Law enforcement officers placed a special emphasis on the company's financial activities. Thus, in 2024, Progress-C LLC paid 923 thousand rubles in taxes and almost 2.8 million rubles in contributions to the Russian budget. The following year, the amounts increased to 1.1 million rubles in taxes and 2 million rubles in contributions.

The suspect denied his guilt. In court, he explained that he agreed to head the company only to preserve its assets and prevent the occupiers from seizing property. He also stated that the company did not actually conduct full-fledged activities and did not pay Russian taxes, limiting itself to land lease payments. According to him, he returned to Ukraine in 2024 and has not left the country since.

Progress-C's ties to the Freedom Farm group. SCREENSHOT: YouControl

According to the YouControl analytical system, Progress-C was registered in 2010 in Dnipro with a registered capital of UAH 35 million. Its owner is Oleksandr Chornyi. Among the founders are also Zeminvest Agro LLC and Petro Kovtun, who heads the company. The main activity of the company is the cultivation of grain crops.

As it turned out, Progress-C LLC is a member of the Freedom Farm Terra LLC group, which was accused of collaborating with the occupiers. According to the 2023 ruling of the Zaporizhzhia Court of Appeal, Freedom Farm Terra and its management remained in the occupied part of the Zaporizhzhia region. The company continued agricultural production there. Law enforcement officers suggest that these funds could have been used by the occupation authorities, in particular to support Russian business and activities related to the war against Ukraine.

In the fall of 2022, representatives of the company allegedly voluntarily handed over most of the harvest to the Russian military. According to the investigation, the grain was later transported through occupied Crimea to Russia.

Progress-C's ties to the Freedom Farm group. SCREENSHOT: YouControl

"Freedom Farm Terra is part of the Freedom Farm group of companies, which unites 23 enterprises. The group operates in the agricultural sector, produces meat and controls about 30 thousand hectares of land in the Kherson region. In Zaporizhzhia, the group also includes Agrorozivka, Melitopol Agroexport, Gagarin AIC, and Progress-C.

The court ruled to keep the man in custody. At the same time, bail was set at over UAH 66 thousand.

Also in May, the court remanded in custody in absentia a resident of Kherson region suspected of aiding the aggressor state. According to the investigation, the farmer cooperated with the Russian military, handed over equipment and grain to them and helped equip the occupiers' positions in the Genichesk district.

Анна Бальчінос