Since the beginning of the full-scale war, only 5% of the 20,000 companies with a “Russian-Belarusian trace” have changed their beneficiaries. Namely, representatives of the aggressor countries withdrew from the ownership structure.
At the same time, 39 newly created companies appeared with the ownership structure of persons associated with Russia and Belarus. Most of these legal entities were registered during the military year of 2022 and belong to charitable organizations.
This is evidenced by the data of the YouControl analytical center.
At the beginning of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, YouControl created a list of active Ukrainian companies with an “enemy trail.” The list includes more than 20,000 active Ukrainian enterprises with at least one citizen or resident of the Russian Federation or the Republic of Belarus among their owners, founders or ultimate beneficiaries.
Over the past 16 months, only some of these companies have seen changes in the composition of their co-owners, namely the withdrawal of representatives of the aggressor countries, Russia and Belarus.
The analysts managed to identify more than 1,000 such firms, which is slightly more than 5% of the total number of companies with ties to Russia and Belarus. Almost 50% of these companies are registered in Kyiv. Kyiv, and about 6.5% are located in the Kyiv region. Almost 27% work in trade, 14% in manufacturing and real estate.
The study revealed that the disappearance of representatives of the Russian Federation and Belarus from the structure of owners of Ukrainian companies does not always mean the disappearance of ties with the aggressor countries. Some changes were probably aimed at concealing the “Russian-Belarusian trace”.
The most common methods of such pseudo-changes were:
- change of data in the Unified State Register of Legal Entities and Individual Entrepreneurs regarding the country of citizenship or registration address of participants/beneficiaries from Russia and Belarus to another country. In particular, most often to Cyprus, Turkey, Israel, and Ukraine;
- re-registration of ownership of alleged relatives who have citizenship of Ukraine or other countries other than the Russian Federation and Belarus (matching surnames and patronymics, which coincide with the name of the previous participant);
In addition, during the full-scale invasion of Ukraine by Russia, 39 newly established companies were identified with the ownership structure of persons associated with Russia and Belarus. About half of these legal entities (19) are registered in Kyiv, while another 14 organizations are registered in the West of Ukraine, 3 in the South and 2 in the East. More than 60% of these companies (24) were registered in 2022.
14 legal entities with Russian or Belarusian co-owners are charitable organizations with the main KvED classification – provision of other social assistance without accommodation, n.a.s.a. In most companies, co-owners are citizens of the Russian Federation and Belarus, and have a Ukrainian place of registration (address).
However, in 7 companies, Belarusian citizens who are members of newly established Ukrainian enterprises during the full-scale war, according to the USR, are registered in the Republic of Belarus and in one case in Turkey. Some of the companies registered between 24.02.2022 and 11.07.2023 are related to each other through their shareholders.
During the 16 months of the war, a small number of Ukrainian companies that were registered before the full-scale invasion had representatives from Russia and Belarus as members. YouControl analysts have identified 10 such companies. Five of them are registered in Kyiv, 3 in Kharkiv region, and one company each in Rivne and Odesa regions.
