“Schemes”: EU buys oil from Belarus from rapeseed exported from occupied Kherson region
19 February 19:18
The Belarusian enterprise Agroproduct uses raw materials taken from the districts of Kherson region temporarily occupied by Russians and supplies finished products in the form of rapeseed oil to the European Union.
This was reported by Radio Liberty, "Komersant Ukrainian" reports.
The Schemes investigation (a project of Radio Liberty), which journalists prepared in cooperation with Lithuanian, Latvian, and Belarusian partners, states that one of these countries is Lithuania, where a ban on the import of Belarusian food products, including rapeseed oil, has been in place since the summer of 2024.
According to the Federal State Information System “Grain,” in 2023, almost 5,000 tons of rapeseed were exported to Belarus from the occupied part of Kherson region.
In Belarus, five companies received Ukrainian rapeseed, including Agroproduct. It is one of the largest producers of rapeseed oil exported to the EU, according to the investigation.
According to Eurostat, during the first six months of 2024, EU countries bought more than 90 thousand tons of rapeseed oil from Belarus for more than 67 million euros. The main buyers are Lithuania and Latvia.
According to the Belarusian opposition organization Community of Belarusian Railroaders, these countries received approximately 50 thousand tons of rapeseed oil in 2024 exclusively from Agroproduct.
Logistics companies in Latvia and Lithuania confirmed their cooperation with the Belarusian Agroproduct in a conversation with journalists, even though Lithuania has been banning the import of rapeseed oil since June 2024.
The journalists found out that Agroprodukt has ties to the Belarusian authorities. The company’s co-founder is the Belarusian company Transit-Auto 2003. Its owner, Aleksei Shvedov, regularly visited Ukraine together with Alexander Zaitsev, an employee of the Presidential Administration of Belarus, and Konstantin Sumar, former governor of Brest Oblast, who called self-proclaimed Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko “a little higher than God,” the media reported.
In an interview, Agroprodukt director Oleg Teslyuk boasted of his connections in the government, saying that his “requests would be considered.”
“In 2023, Transit-Auto 2003 was subject to Ukrainian sanctions for helping the Russian army transport military equipment and soldiers. However, journalists note that the oil company it founded, Agroproduct, is not on the EU and Ukraine’s sanctions lists and has the right to supply products to Europe without hindrance.
Vladyslav Vlasiuk, the Presidential Commissioner for Sanctions Policy, who was contacted by journalists for comment, reviewed the findings of the investigation and said:
“We can talk about the actions of a foreign legal entity that pose real or potential threats to the national interests and territorial integrity of Ukraine, which may be grounds for imposing Ukrainian sanctions.”
The company’s director, Oleg Teslyuk, refused to answer journalists’ questions.
