Vasyl Kononov, the former head of the Ukrainian customs service, has defected to the occupiers and taken charge of the agricultural company Agro-Trading LLC in the occupied town of Starobilsk in the Luhansk region. The company has been re-registered under Russian law, pays taxes to the Russian Federation’s budget and regularly receives financial subsidies from the occupying administration.
According to an investigation by the publication ‘Farvater.Skhid’, the former official’s collaboration with the occupiers has been confirmed by extracts from the official website of the Russian Federation’s Federal Tax Service. According to the registers, Vasyl Kononov (born 1955) was issued with a Russian tax identification number (TIN 940400888951) and Russian citizenship, and in the autumn of 2023 he officially became the director of Agro-Trading LLC. The registered address in Starobilsk at Geologichna Street fully matches the personal details of the former Ukrainian customs official.
Although the company’s authorised capital amounts to the minimum of 10,000 roubles, it is an active participant in the economic life of the occupying regime. Between 2024 and 2026, ‘Agro-Trading’ was included at least 12 times in the register of recipients of ‘state’ business support from the so-called ‘LNR’ Entrepreneurship Support Fund.
Investigators have established that the agricultural firm belongs to a whole network of local collaborators:
Company owner: The nominal founder of Agro-Trading LLC is Natalia Kononova — the daughter-in-law of Vasyl Kononov.
The owner’s husband: Vitaliy Kononov (son of a former customs officer) headed the Starobilsk District State Administration prior to the full-scale invasion. Following the occupation, he defected to the enemy and is currently wanted on suspicion of treason.
The owner’s father: Valerii Pakhnyts (a former member of the Party of Regions) took charge of the occupying ‘Starobilsk District Administration’ in 2022.
‘Documentary evidence and eyewitness accounts have led journalists far beyond the company’s corporate dossier – to family ties, collaboration and the criminal activities of the occupation administration.’
According to the Ukrainian agricultural holding ‘Agroton’, it was Vitaliy Kononov and Valery Pakhnyts in 2022 who were directly involved in the forcible seizure and alienation of the company’s assets in Luhansk.