Ukraine has informed the European Union, Belarus and Moldova of contraband flows of goods, including coal, from the territories controlled by militants, Chief of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) Valentyn Nalyvaichenko has said.
“Our European partners and neighbors – Belarus and Moldova – have been informed about the so-called criminal schemes to smuggle goods from the territories temporarily occupied by militants where there are illegal contraband products, in particular, cigarettes. Illegal attempts are also being made to export coal, and even food that civilians so lack. All of this is taken from the people, and for money, in a criminal manner, which is peculiar to these ringleaders, they are trying to smuggle all this abroad across Ukrainian territory,” he told reporters in Kyiv on Nov. 25.
However, he said that SBU was actively combating such attempts of smuggling.
He said that several people had been arrested arrests and that the details would be announced later.
“For us it is important that these contraband flows be stopped,” Nalyvaichenko said.
