Ukraine gas retailer claims sabotage in gasoline fire

The gasoline retailer whose storage base has burned for a week believes the fire was the result of sabotage committed by a terrorist group, its spokesman told a June 12 press conference. The company’s gas stations had been targeted with several acts of sabotage since April last year with the goal of forcing their sale, the spokesman said, as reported by Interfax-Ukraine. A Dutch investor into the company will conduct an independent international investigation of the fire, the spokesman said. The company, BRSM-Nafta, is linked to Eduard Stavytskiy, the former energy minister who resettled in Israel after the EuroMaidan protests.

The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) has opened a criminal case against a former deputy prosecutor for “collecting illegal revenues” from the directors of BRSM-Nafta, reported on June 12 Valentyn Nalyvaychenko, the SBU head. He didn’t reveal his name. The SBU has dismissed the directors of its anti-corruption and organized crime unit “in order to conduct an unbiased and public investigation” of illegal business activities at the company, he said. The SBU has filed criminal charge of ecocide in the fire, a top SBU official said on June 12. Meanwhile, he gasoline storage base’s director and main engineer have been arrested for alleged illegal business activities, said Arsen Avakov, the interior minister, on June 12.

Zenon Zawda: Another black eye for Ukraine. Few foreign investors will want to do business in a country in which business disputes are settled in such a violent and disastrous manner. Enough incidents happened before the fire that could have prompted law enforcement authorities to get involved and make arrests at an earlier stage.

Moreover, the alleged illegal business schemes involving top SBU officers were in place for an entire year after the new president arrived, indicating that recent corruption claims against the SBU have a solid basis. These schemes might have still functioned if not for the fire that killed five and injured 15.