How Russia Loots Coal from Occupied Ukraine

[Rogue Valley]

How Russia Loots Coal from Occupied Ukraine

Coal trains in Donetsk.

Those of you unfamiliar with eastern Ukraine may be unaware it was once the industrial heartland of Soviet Russia. What is now eastern Ukraine and adjacent parts of Russia, known collectively as the Donbass, provided coal for numerous Russian towns and cities. Since those heady days, the coal industry has declined. In eastern Ukraine, disused mines and giant slag heaps are a prominent feature in many towns and cities. When Russian forces invaded in 2014, there were around 55 mines still operating. Many of these subsequently shut down, with the remaining viable ones taken over by Russia’s so-called Donetsk and Luhansk people’s republics. In January of this year, Vadym Chernysh, Ukraine’s Minister for Temporarily Occupied Territories and Internally Displaced Persons, spoke about how Russia loots coal from occupied Ukraine. He claimed Russia exports approx. 2.8 million tons of Ukrainian anthracite coal worth around $288 million annually. It’s thought this income may be used by the Kremlin to help fund Russia’s occupation of eastern Ukraine, and no doubt line a few corrupt people’s bulging pockets. With a huge largely inactive standing army to pay for, a vast administration wage bill for those civilians involved in the occupation, the mountain of day to day infrastructure costs, providing pensions and keeping hospitals/schools running for several million inhabitants, all makes for a costly occupation undertaking.

Cast iron evidence (is that a pun?) of this illegal coal acquisition comes via the OSCE. Accompanied by soldiers, on Jan 13th they observed a train with 60 cargo wagons full of coal heading towards the Russian border. Seen in the Ukrainian border town of Voznesenivka, the only next stop on the line is the town of Gukovo in Russia. Note how the OSCE also saw another 60 empty cargo wagons and fuel tanks at the same station. This only adds to the belief that the transfer of coal is taking place on a regular basis, with trains routinely going back and forth to Russia.

Russia is stealing Ukrainian coal from the Donbas region and gas/oil fields off the coast of Crimea. Russia is also removing thousands of archeological artifacts from Crimea. In addition, the Russian occupation authorities have allowed dozens of abandoned coal mines in the Donbas region to flood, which creates environmental disasters for water wells, agriculture fields, nearby streams, etc.

On the same day, at the railway station in Voznesenivka, the SMM saw more than 60 cargo wagons, including 12 fuel tank cars, all of which were assessed as empty. The SMM also observed 60 train wagons, loaded with coal, travelling towards the border with the Russian Federation. In the last wagon, the SMM saw two armed members of the armed formations. After about ten minutes, two members of the armed formations present at the railway station asked the SMM to leave the area.

OSCE/SMM - 13 January 2019

 

[Fledermaus]

How Russia Loots Coal from Occupied Ukraine

Coal trains in Donetsk.



Russia is stealing Ukrainian coal from the Donbas region and gas/oil fields off the coast of Crimea. Russia is also removing thousands of archeological artifacts from Crimea. In addition, the Russian occupation authorities have allowed dozens of abandoned coal mines in the Donbas region to flood, which creates environmental disasters for water wells, agriculture fields, nearby streams, etc.


OSCE/SMM - 13 January 2019

Cue Russian apologists in. 3.... 2..... 1........

 

[Litwin]

How Russia Loots Coal from Occupied Ukraine

Coal trains in Donetsk.



Russia is stealing Ukrainian coal from the Donbas region and gas/oil fields off the coast of Crimea. Russia is also removing thousands of archeological artifacts from Crimea. In addition, the Russian occupation authorities have allowed dozens of abandoned coal mines in the Donbas region to flood, which creates environmental disasters for water wells, agriculture fields, nearby streams, etc.

The Soviet Union engaged in systematic looting during World War II, particularly of Germany – seeing this as reparations for damage and looting done by Germany in the Soviet Union.[45][153] The Soviets also looted other occupied territories; for example, looting by Soviets was common on the territories theoretically assigned to its ally, communist Poland.[154][155] Even Polish Communists were uneasy, as in 1945, the future Chairman of the Polish Council of State, Aleksander Zawadzki, worried that the "raping and looting by the Soviet army would provoke a civil war."[156] Soviet forces had engaged in plunder on the former eastern territories of Germany that were to be transferred to Poland, stripping it of anything of value.[157][158] A recently recovered masterwork is Gustave Courbet's Femme nue couchée, looted in Budapest, Hungary, in 1945.

In 1998, and after considerable controversy, Russia passed the Federal Law on Cultural Valuables Displaced to the USSR as a Result of the Second World War and Located on the Territory of the Russian Federation, which allowed Russians to keep the illegally stolen art works and museum pieces and to prevent any restitution to their rightful owners in Germany.

OSCE/SMM - 13 January 2019

Baltics , Belarus, Ukraine, Poland , Romania, etc, Ukraine again , an usual story for juchi empire

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Looted_art#Looting_by_the_Soviet_Union

The Soviet Union engaged in systematic looting during World War II, particularly of Germany – seeing this as reparations for damage and looting done by Germany in the Soviet Union.[45][153] The Soviets also looted other occupied territories; for example, looting by Soviets was common on the territories theoretically assigned to its ally, communist Poland.[154][155] Even Polish Communists were uneasy, as in 1945, the future Chairman of the Polish Council of State, Aleksander Zawadzki, worried that the "raping and looting by the Soviet army would provoke a civil war."[156] Soviet forces had engaged in plunder on the former eastern territories of Germany that were to be transferred to Poland, stripping it of anything of value.[157][158] A recently recovered masterwork is Gustave Courbet's Femme nue couchée, looted in Budapest, Hungary, in 1945.

In 1998, and after considerable controversy, Russia passed the Federal Law on Cultural Valuables Displaced to the USSR as a Result of the Second World War and Located on the Territory of the Russian Federation, which allowed Russians to keep the illegally stolen art works and museum pieces and to prevent any restitution to their rightful owners in Germany.