National Security Council introduces new sanctions against VS Energy company, son of former MP and daughter of former defence minister
On Friday, 12 May, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy signed decrees on introducing sanctions against legal entities and individuals, including the VS Energy International NV company, former MP Andrii Derkach, and the daughter of Pavlo Lebedev, the Defence Minister who served during the presidency of Viktor Yanukovych.
Source: This is stated in Presidential Decree 279/2023, dated 12 May 2023.
Details: Volodymyr Lukyanenko, the owner of the Sumy Machine-Building R&D Union, and his son, who owns the Sumy machine-building company NVO-ENGINEERING are also facing sanctions now.
In addition, Derkach's son and Lebedev's daughter were included in the sanction list.
Sanctions concern VS Energy International NV company (Netherlands), which has energy assets of VS Energy Ukraine and VS Energy Latvia registered to it.
As for VS Energy International NV, law enforcement agencies tried to seize these assets at least thrice. Still, it was to no avail: in April 2022, the court stated that the existence of legal grounds for seizing the assets had not been proven.
VS Energy owns a hotel business in Ukraine, operating via Premier Hotels & Resorts group. It owns four hotels in Kyiv alone, and more in Lviv, Kharkiv, Bukovel and Odesa.
In addition, the group owns a share of the Dniprospetsstal steel plant in Zaporizhzhia, as well as that of Metrohrad and Metropolis shopping mall in Kyiv.
The State Bureau of Investigation found out that non-public beneficiaries of the VS Energy group are Russian businessman Mikhail Voevodin, known in criminal circles by the alias of "Misha Luznetsky"; Yevgeny Giner, tge former president of CSKA Moscow FC, and Alexander Babakov, Deputy Chairman of the State Duma of the Russian Federation.
In May 2022, the group said that since 2014, Giner, Voevodin and Babakov had had no relationship with Ukrainian oblenergo (regional authority that deals with electricity supplies – ed.), and their beneficiaries were Marina Yaroslavska, Oleh Sizerman (Germany), Valts Vigants, Vilis Dambins and Arturs Altbergs (Latvia).
Thus, names of the nominal owners of the VS Energy have been included in the new sanctions list.
Sanctions were also imposed against relatives of Giner and Babakov, namely Vadym Giner, Olga Babakova-Le Bren and Iryna Babakova.
Reminder:
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced new sanctions that continue isolating and blocking the Russian military industry. 493 legal entities and 208 individuals were included in the sanctions lists.
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