MOSCOW, January 16 (RAPSI) – The Security Service of Ukraine, the SBU, suspects companies of the LUKOIL group and the East European Energy Company (VETEK) of terror financing, according to SBU official, Markiyan Lubkivskiy.

SBU has information proving that these companies grossly violated Ukrainian legislation when importing and marketing petrochemicals in Ukraine and that they have used the receipts to finance the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Lugansk people’s republics, Lubkivskiy says.

According to the SBU, LUKOIL officials organized the smuggling and sale of over 2 million metric tons of petrochemicals worth a total of about $2 billion in 2013-2014 via seaports and Ukraine’s land border with Belarus. They allegedly used their subordinate companies to evade customs control, in particular  LUKOIL, LUKOIL Ukraine, the Odessa Oil Refinery and Pervaya Toplivnaya Kompaniya (First Fuel Company).

The SBU claims that they transferred their revenues to subsidiary companies and subsequently used the funds to finance the terrorist operations of the Donetsk and Lugansk people’s republics.

LUKOIL's press service head Vitaly Matushkin followed up the SBU statement with an official rebuttal. Matushkin told the press that all LUKOIL operations were conducted within the international and Ukrainian law.