Belarusian companies become 'Polish' to continue working in Ukraine

Belarusian enterprises are not ready to give up on Ukrainian and Western markets under war and sanctions, Ukrainian investigators have found. They analyzed what happened to firms in the Volyn region of Ukraine, whose founders included citizens of Belarus.

To continue operating in the Ukrainian market, several firms became "Polish," according to the investigation of the "The Power of Truth"  project. 

The ST&M Ukraine company is cited as an example. It is engaged in the repair of roads, equipment and paints for road markings. The company was registered in Lutsk in 2008 and actively used budget money during tenders till 2022.  Belarusian businessman Dzmitry Charnenka owns STiM Ukraine. In 2019, he and his brother Ihar Charnenka were among the top 200 entrepreneurs in the republic. Charnenka owns one of Belarus' private thermoplastic factories, with its head office in Brest. But the company also has many branches in Russia.

And even now, the company is trying to work with Russia and Ukraine simultaneously. In August, Charnenka hosted Russian Ambassador to Belarus Boris Gryzlov at his Brest enterprise.  And in November, the Polish company Kontur, owned by Dzmitry Charnenka, became the owner of ST&M Ukraine. Only this time, it resided in the Lublin voivodeship.

"To find out whose equipment the company is selling, Sila Pravdy called the contact numbers of the Polish Kontur. The first thing the journalists heard on the phone was "Hello." International saleswoman Alesya Boyka did not respond to the greeting in Polish. When she heard that journalists from Ukraine were calling, she refused to answer the question about the company," the authors of the investigation say. Then they called under the guise of a client and found out that Polish "Kontur" sells road marking machines made in Belarus.