Ukrainian Railroad Monopoly Buying Over $500,000 of Spare Parts From Russia

Ukraine may consider Russia the number one threat to its territorial integrity, but that isn’t stopping the country’s state railroad monopoly from purchasing Russian equipment.

Ukrzalisnytsia (“Ukrainian Railways”) will pay Russia 15.35 million UAH ($574,799) for mechanical spare parts, according to Prozorro, Ukraine’s online public procurement system.

Photo credit: EPA.com

The Prozorro database shows that, on September 26, Ukrzalisnytsia concluded a series of agreements with Kyiv-registered limited liability company (LLC) Omeha Alkor. Omeha Alkor, in turn, has stated that it will provide Ukrzalisnytsia with mechanical parts produced by Russia’s Kamensk Transport Engineering Plant and Czechia’s High Quality Industries, LLC.

Formerly known as the Luhansk Machine-Building Plant, the Kamensk plant is an engineering factory that was previously based in Ukraine’s eastern city of Luhansk. Although still de-jure registered in Ukraine, its contents were moved to the Russian town of Kamensk-Shakhtynsky in 2014 after Russia invaded eastern Ukraine.

High Quality Industries, LLC is registered in Karlovy Vary, Czechia and owned by Belgian offshore company Violine Logistic, LTD. The LLC’s commercial director is Sergey Zaripov, a lawyer associated with a number of Czech law firms like Law & Order Group LLC and Alpika Company LLC. Law & Order Group is known to provide services to severeal Russian oligarchs, while Alpika Company is owned by Russian businessman Yevgeny Subbota.

The CEO of Omeha Alkor is Luhansk-born Yevgeniya Netrunenko. The company’s office is located in Kyiv, opposite Ukrzalisnytsia’s. Omeha Alkor was founded in 2016 and has already made mechanical part deals with Ukrzaliznytsia worth over 51 million UAH (almost $2 million).

Ukrzaliznytsia spokesman Serhiy Shchur told Hromadske he cannot yet comment on the situation and a statement from Ukrzalisnytsia will soon follow.

/By Maria Romanenko