Russian firms seize control over two Ukrainian plants in occupied Donbas

Ukraine's Horlivka meat processing plant and Silur, a Khartsyzsk-based rope plant, both located in the temporarily occupied areas of Donbas and earlier seized by "DPR" militants, now came under the control of dubious Russian firms.

Representatives of self-styled local "authorities" call this process a "change of management," while failing to explain the grounds for Russian companies to gain control over industrial enterprises, writes Vostochny Variant.

The names of the actual owners of the Russian firms involved are not being disclosed.

"There is nothing new or sensational in the fact of the seizure of Ukrainian assets in the occupied Donbas. But while earlier, Ukrainian enterprises there would be formally seized by separatist groups and received the status of 'LDPR state enterprises', now Russian companies have openly joined the process of grabbing stolen Ukrainian property, by seizing the assets of Ukrainian businessmen without the consent of their legal owners in violation of international law," the publication notes.

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Khartsyzsk plant Silur was seized by the "DPR" forces back in December 2016. Then the leadership of the so-called "republic" declared the plant a "state enterprise". However, in late July 2019 came the reports that the plant was handed to the Russian company, LLC RosExpoSnab, a low-profile firm with a charter capital of only RUB 10,000.

Meanwhile, the Horlivka meat processing plant was transferred to a certain Russian LLC Profgarant, also a company with almost no information available about its former activity.

Some pro-"DPR"sites called the hand-over of factories to Russian owners a "raider seizure."

In the conditions of the unrecognized gray zone, almost none of the local enterprises operate over 20-30% of their former capacity, the publication adds.