According to the international customs database, on February 22, 2022, on the eve of the full-scale invasion, PJSC Frunze Plant, owned by Kharkiv Council member from the Kernes Bloc Oleksandr Vasylenko, was still supplying its products to the Russian company Frunze Plant TD LLC, owned by his business partner Oleksandr Romanenko, Slidstvo.Info learned from the ImportGenius customs database.
Kharkiv-based PJSC Frunze Plant supplied metal structures and ferrous metal products to the Russian company Frunze Plant TD LLC, located in Belgorod. According to the ImportGenius database (which contains data on import and export operations – ed.), these deliveries date back to February 22, 2022, two days before the full-scale invasion. Frunze Plant also supplied some of its products to Belarus.
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- Screenshot from the database
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- Screenshot from the database
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- Screenshot from the database
Recently, Slidstvo.Info journalists reported that one of the owners of the Frunze Plant, Oleksandr Romanenko, was found guilty by a court of collaboration and payment of taxes to the Russian budget after the full-scale invasion.
In particular, the Holosiyivskyi District Court of Kyiv recently published a verdict finding Oleksandr Romanenko guilty of doing business in Russia during the full-scale war and paying 20 million rubles in taxes to the aggressor state ($218,000).
For this crime, the court sentenced the businessman to a fine of 170,000 hryvnias ($4,411) and deprived him of the right to hold certain positions, including in government bodies, for a period of 10 years. The court commuted the sentence because Romanenko is actively involved in volunteer work.
Oleksandr Romanenko is a Kharkiv-based businessman and founder of the Russian company Frunze Plant LLC. This company is registered in Belgorod and trades in automotive parts, perforated metal products, furniture, and timber.
According to the YouControl open data platform, Romanenko is one of the largest shareholders in the Ukrainian namesake, Frunze Plant. Councilor Oleksandr Vasylenko has a controlling stake, which allows him to make almost all decisions alone. They also jointly own the company Frunze Solar LLC, which produces electricity and is part of the “Frunze group of companies”, owned by the Vasylenko family. The main activities of the group’s companies are the production of metal products, trade and repair of motor vehicles, and electricity generation.
Oleksandr Vasylenko
In Ukraine, the Frunze trademark was registered by Vasylenko’s joint-stock company. The Russian company uses the same emblem, and the Russian website’s “About us” section refers to the Ukrainian Frunze Plant’s YouTube channel, where Vasylenko personally advertises his own products.
Vasylenko himself was once a co-founder of a company in Russia that was part of the “Frunze group of companies”. He owned it together with Romanenko.
In February 2023, Ukrainian PJSC Frunze Plant entered into an additional agreement with the Russian company Frunze Plant and even agreed with the National Bank to make a payment from Russia to Ukraine.
Oleksandr Vasylenko himself is a member of the Kharkiv City Council from the party KERNES BLOC – SUCCESSFUL KHARKIV! In 2015, he was elected to the city council from the Revival party, and in 2010 from the Party of Regions. T
he video has English subtitles.
