Moscow - Donetsk Regional Governor Serhiy Taruta, Verkhovna Rada deputy Oleh Liashko and some other people financing Ukrainian Interior Ministry units may be included in the expanded list of Ukrainian officials, politicians and businessmen, the Izvestia newspaper said on Wednesday, Aug. 13.
“A number of businessmen do not conceal they are not only rendering substantial material support but are also personally engaged in the operations. Also, as far as we know, some of them are connected to the mob,” an informed source in the law enforcement authorities told the newspaper.
Oligarch and Donetsk Regional Governor S. Taruta, Verkhovna Rada deputy and Radical Party leader O. Liashko and Kyiv businessmen, the Konstantynovsky brothers Oleksandr and Viacheslav, may be added to the list, he said.
Liashko sponsors the Ukraine battalion, which has attacked supporters of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic in Mariupol and Torez, the newspaper emphasized.
“But, certainly, Liashko does not have an army or funds comparable with those of Ihor Kolomoisky (an oligarch and Dnipropetrovsk Regional Governor) who pays volunteers from $1,260 a month [compared with an average Ukrainian salary of approximately $300],” a source in the security services told Izvestia.
The Konstantynovsky brothers are amongst the active sponsors of the Ukrainian army, he added.
The Focus magazine rates the Konstantynovsky brothers amongst the 200 richest Ukrainians. They rank 41st with a fortune of $385 million, the newspaper said.
Izvestia recalled that a short time ago Viacheslav Konstantynovsky was a member of the Kyiv-1 battalion and posted in the social networking media photographs of himself wearing camouflage and carrying a weapon.
According to the Ukrainian media, the same battalion employs Oleksandr, the son of Ukrainian Interior Minister Arsen Avakov, the newspaper said.
“The assistance rendered by the Konstantynovsky brothers to the Kyiv-1 battalion is sort of a payment to Avakov for his protection. It is not a secret that the brothers are closely connected to the mob. In fact, they are known as the Karamazov brothers in the criminal community,” the law enforcer told the newspaper.
Meanwhile, the Donbas armed unit is linked to businessman Semen Semenchenko, the owner of a small office stationary retailer, Izvestia said.
Sources in the Russian security services told the newspaper that the Donbas battalion was actually backed by oligarchs Rinat Akhmetov (whose fortune is estimated at $12.5 billion by Forbes) and Donetsk Region Governor S. Taruta (a fortune of $597 million, according to the Ukrainian Forbes).
Southeastern Front information center head Kostiantyn Knyrik confirmed to Izvestia that Ukrainian oligarchs and criminals were funding private battalions fighting in southeastern Ukraine.
“All these battalions are funded by oligarchs Kolomoisky and Akhmetov and criminal groups. They receive orders from their sponsors to destroy particular plants in Donbas,” he said.
Meanwhile, Police Lt. Gen. Alexander Gurov (Retired) told the newspaper it was necessary “to strike the sponsors.”
“If there is no money there will be no mercenaries, it is always important to do away with the financial element, to block money flows. It will suffice not to pay their salaries once, and many mercenaries would be gone,” he said.
Yet the Investigative Committee declined an official comment to Izvestia on the possible expansion of the list.
