The Russian company Donskoy Ugol Trading House is planning to start exporting coal from the occupied Donbas region through the port of Mariupol in October, the Russian state-controlled media outlet RBC reported on Sept. 30, citing Andey Chertkov, a Russian proxy leader operating in occupied Donetsk Oblast.
Russia has occupied Crimea and part of the eastern Donbas region since the start of its aggression in 2014.
The city of Mariupol in Donetsk Oblast came under siege by Russian forces between February and May 2022, leaving thousands dead and reducing Mariupol to rubble. According to authorities' rough estimates, at least 25,000 people could have been killed. The exact number remains unknown and could be much higher.
Donskoy Ugol Trading House's CEO, Oleg Knyazev, claimed that negotiations on coal supplies from the Donbas region are ongoing with potential buyers from China, India, Iran, Uzbekistan, and Malaysia.
Exports could pass through the ports of Russian-occupied Mariupol, Russian cities Taganrog and Rostov-on-Don, and by rail through Azerbaijan and Iran, RBC said, citing its undisclosed source familiar with the company's plans.
Donskoy Ugol Trading House was founded in 2020 in Rostov-on-Don, Russia. From 2020 to 2023, Vitaliy Donchenko and Aleksandr Maslyuk owned the company. They were sanctioned by Ukraine in 2021.
In 2024, Donskoy Ugol Trading House leased 10 coal mines from Russian proxies in Luhansk Oblast. Some of these mines previously belonged to the Ukrainian metallurgical company Metinvest, controlled by Ukraine's richest man, Rinat Akhmetov.
Dominic Culverwell
