Over USD 8.6 mln from the Ukrainian defence budget found its way to the close circle of Oleksandr Lukashenko, the Belarusian dictator, via a chain of companies-intermediaries.
NGL.media managed to reveal a Ukrainian business network that used the budget finances to procure the goods for the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) via the companies-intermediaries in Poland, Lithuania, and Singapore, controlled by people, directly working for the Belarusian regime. And they also re-sold these goods at considerably higher prices.
Thus, the income from the Ukrainian defence orders accumulated on the accounts of the structures which help Lukashenko’s regime bypass international sanctions.
This investigation has become possible thanks to the financial support from the participants of the NGL.media community, who have access to special content and possibilities.
The Ukrainian part of the scheme consists of five companies which regularly take part in the bidding processes, initiated by the Ministry of Defence. First of all, noteworthy are Prolog Service LLC, Coltrain and Bizneskom LTD. Last November, these three companies were fined for UAH 26.9 mln for conspiracy during the bidding at the Ministry of Defence. At that time, the specialists of the Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine (AMCU) proved very conclusively that these companies were closely interrelated and practically conducted their economic activity together.
One of the most interesting findings in the AMCU report was the information about their common supplier. It was found that both Prolog Service and Coltrain bought goods from the same Polish company, Nops, to further re-sell them to the Ukrainian army. In its turn, Nops had bought these goods from Chinese producers and then re-sold them to the Ukrainian companies.
At the same time, the Ukrainian companies could have bought the required goods directly from the Chinese producers, since they submitted the documents to the Ministry of Defence, stating that they were representatives of these Chinese companies Oxman Sourcing Co., Ltd, Shaoxing Weien Textile Co., Ltd, JKPD Equipment Co., Ltd – but, for some reason, they didn’t do it.
When NGL.media investigated the activity of Nops, we suspected that this formally Polish company had actually been established by Belarusians to re-sell Chinese products to five interrelated Ukrainian companies which were then supplied to the AFU at higher prices.
Polish trace
In July 2022, the Warsaw-based company, Nops Officially, this company was registered in Warsaw in July 2020, at first it specialized in providing employment services got a new owner – Dzmitry Shershan, a 45-year-old Belarusian with Polish citizenship. Instead of employment services, the company started whole sales and things got much better. By the end of the year, the net profit was 42.2 mln zloty (UAH 358.7 mln at the exchange rate at the time).
However, the entire activity of this enterprise was limited to Ukraine only, or, to be more precise, only four Ukrainian companies – Prolog Service, Bizneskom LTD, Agrotrading group and Yunistkom The data of ImportGenius service based on the official customs data about export-import operations. Nops supplied these companies with rather specific goods – military pouches, military flask cases, etc. Another Ukrainian company, Coltrain, also received these goods, though it didn’t directly buy them from Nops.
NGL.media found out that all Ukrainian companies actually had common economic activity and were closely interrelated, for instance, they had the same managers, numerous loan agreements with each other and joint contracts with the Ministry of Defence. This activity already attracted the interest of the NABU detectives who found statute, bidding and other documents of Coltrain, Prolog Service, Agrotrading group and even the seal of the Polish company, Nops, during the search in the office of Bizneskom LTD last year.
At the same time, Nops didn’t produce anything on its own, just re-sold specific military goods, procured from the Chinese producers, and then Ukrainian companies re-sold them to the Ministry of Defense. As a result, in the opinion of the AMCU, it led to a considerable increase in the final cost of the goods.
Singapore trace
Dzmitry Shershan, a Belarusian, is not only the owner of the Polish company, Nops, but also one of the directors two other directors of HDE Machinery Pte. Ltd. are Igor Mishaniov and Nargiza Shaimkulova, they are also connected to Belarus and Belarusian state enterprises, BelAZ and Belshina of the Singapore-based HDE Machinery Pte. Ltd., owned by WNC Pte Ltd., another company established in Singapore.
It was WNC Pte Ltd. that received UAH 222.4 mln (over USD 6 mln) in 2022 from the already mentioned Ukrainian company, Prolog Service. Two agreements envisaged the supply of a large batch of military flasks and flask cases, which then were re-sold by Prolog Service to the Ukrainian army at a higher price.
The NABU detectives, investigating this scheme, believe that the supply of flasks and flask cases via a chain of intermediaries, which led to a considerable increase in their price, became possible due to the conspiracy of the officials at the Ukrainian Ministry of Defence and the management of Prolog Service LLC.
Another UAH 38.5 mln were transferred by Prolog Service to the Lithuanian company, Namowa, which is also deemed by the NABU to be a one too many intermediary.
NGL.media studied the financial reports of Prolog Service, Coltrain, Bizneskom LTD, Agrotrading group and Yunistkom companies and found out that in 2022-2025, the cumulative income of the group was almost UAH 2 bln to be more precise, UAH 1,975,526.4 thousand; the exact amount and cost of agreements with the Ministry of Defence is classified, or about USD 50 mln. However, they spent only USD 26.8 mln for the procurement of the goods in China, out of which USD 8.63 mln were paid to Belarusian intermediaries USD 11.55 mln more were stated in the direct agreements with Chinese producers of military equipment and USD 6.62 mln – in the agreements with logistics companies; the data of ImportGenius.
Belarusian trace
Despite seemingly broad personal business interests, Dzmitry Shershan, a 45-year-old Belarusian, actually works as a hired top-manager. For more than 10 years, he has been directing a Singapore-based company, Belazia Pte. Ltd., which is an official dealer of the machine-building company, BelAZ in the south-eastern Asia.
At the same time, WNC Pte. Ltd via HDE Machinery Pte. Ltd is the actual owner of Belazia Pte. Ltd. BelAZ is one of the largest Belarusian enterprises, sanctioned by the EU, the USA, Canada, and Ukraine for the violation of human right in Belarus and support for the Russian aggression against Ukraine.
Why do we believe that Shershan is the manager for Lukashenko’s family?
The career of Dzmitry Shershan in Asia is related only to the companies, representing the interests of the Belarusian state company, BelAZ. For instance, Belazia company, registered in Singapore, is the official dealer for BelAZ. Of course, a dealer may be completely independent from the producer and work as per agreement. Yet this is not the case. As proven by the Belarusian investigators, BelAZ dealers cannot be independent companies – they all work only via BelAZ Trade House, the official company, half-owned by the state, and serve as a kind of “interlayer” to remove finances from the state producer of dump trucks. We will not dwell on this scheme, since it has been described in detail here. The fact, relevant for us, is only that its ultimate beneficiary is actually BelAZ Trade House, 45% of which belong to the Belarusian company, President’s Sports Club, controlled by the middle son of Oleksandr Lukashenko, Dmytro Lukashenko.
Therefore, the director of Belazia company is not an independent businessman in the market, and the company itself is not an independent dealer. And the fact that its actual founder is WNC Pte demonstrates that this company is not independent either, rather it is controlled by BelAZ Trade House.
What do the targets of this investigation have to say?
Neither Dzmitry Shershan nor the representatives of WNC Pte Ltd and Belazia Pte. Ltd companies answered the letters with the request to comment this article.
Oleksandr Kucher, the owner of Prolog Service LLC, confirmed the cooperation with Nops and WNC Pte Ltd companies in his written comments for NGL.media but denied that these companies were associated with Belarus in any way. He also highlighted that his company ended the cooperation with WNC Pte. Ltd in 2023 due to commercial reasons .
Yulia Kikot, the owner of Coltrain LLC, states that she didn’t know that Dzmitry Shershan, the owner of Nops company, is also the director of Belazia Pte. Ltd. In her words, Coltrain conducts a sanctions list screening of all its contractors, including such companies as Nops .
Anton Vasylenko, the owner of Bizneskom LLC, also insists that he knew nothing about the associations between Shershan and the official BelAZ dealer. He explains the procurement of Chinese products via the Polish company by the distribution rights of Nops .
The author Yelyzaveta Chyp, editor Oleh Onysko, translation Nelya Plakhota, infographics and cover Viktoria Demchuk
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