Belarus supplies stolen Ukrainian rapeseed oil to Europe

Europe receives rapeseed oil from Belarus, which was exported from the occupied areas of the Kherson region.

This is stated in the investigation “Schemes”, which journalists prepared in cooperation with Lithuanian, Latvian and Belarusian partners.

Thus, the Belarusian company “Agroproduct” uses raw materials exported from the temporarily occupied areas of the Kherson region and supplies finished products in the form of rapeseed oil to EU countries. One of them is Lithuania, where a ban on the import of Belarusian food products (and rapeseed oil in particular) has been in force since the summer of 2024.

In 2023, almost 5 thousand tons of rapeseed seeds were exported from the occupied Kherson region to Belarus. In Belarus, five companies became recipients of Ukrainian rapeseed, among them – “Agroproduct”, one of the largest producers of rapeseed oil, which is exported to the EU.

During the first six months of 2024, EU countries purchased over 90,000 tons of rapeseed oil from Belarus for over 67 million euros. The main buyers were Lithuania and Latvia. Throughout 2024, these countries received approximately 50,000 tons of rapeseed oil each exclusively from Agroproduct.

In a conversation with journalists, logistics companies in Latvia and Lithuania confirmed their cooperation with Agroproduct, even despite the ban on the import of rapeseed oil in Lithuania since June 2024.

According to investigators, Agroproduct has ties to the Belarusian authorities. The company is co-founded by the company Transit-Avto 2003, whose owner has ties to government agencies.

In 2023, the Belarusian company Transit-Avto 2003 was subject to Ukrainian sanctions for assisting the Russian army in transporting military equipment and soldiers. However, the oil producer company it founded, Agroproduct, is not on the EU and Ukrainian sanctions lists and has the right to supply products to Europe without hindrance.

Vladyslav Vlasyuk, the Presidential Commissioner for Sanctions Policy of Ukraine, commented: “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.

Photo: “Schemes,” Radio Liberty.

Earlier, USM reported that the Russians had exported stolen grain from the Kherson region to Spain. Thus, in 2023, Russian exporters exported at least 34,000 tons of grain from the occupied part of the Kherson region. tons of grain for 6.2 million euros.

Kherson grain was sent to Azerbaijan, Turkey, Syria and Iran. Peas from occupied Crimea were exported to Spain. The last delivery was handled by the Agro-Fregat company: it sent 4.5 thousand tons of peas to Spain, of which 2.6 thousand tons were loaded in occupied Sevastopol.