The President of Ukraine
Mr. Zelenskyi V.O.
Head of the Security Service of Ukraine
Mr. Maliuk V.V.
Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine
Mr. Danilov O.M.
Head of the Commission on Protecting Business and Improving Investment Climate
Shmyhal D.A.
Business Ombudsman
Waschuk R.
Open letter of the employees at Aurum Group’s companies regarding the decision by NSDC to impose personal sanctions against the founder of Aurum Group – Alona Lebedieva
Dear Volodymyr Oleksandrovych,
Dear Mr. Maliuk, Mr. Danilov, Mr. Shmyhal, Mr. Waschuk,
On May 12, 2023, due to the Decree of the President of Ukraine came into force the Decision of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine dated May 12, 2023 “On the application and introduction of changes to personal special economic and other restrictive measures (sanctions)”, where among those listed was mentioned Alona Pavlivna Lebedieva.
The opening of a criminal case against Ms. Lebedieva and the seizure of her assets at the initiative of the Security Service of Ukraine in the summer of 2022 on the basis of groundless accusations of allegedly supporting the aggressor-country (according to the results of events in 2018!) by supplying civilian pump products by one of the group’s factories, and the introduction of personal sanctions are, in our opinion, the events in the chain that involve absolutely groundless and unsubstantiated pressure from the security forces, which is exerted on Ms. Lebedieva and the group of companies she heads, exclusively for political reasons and motives of social resonance caused by the family ties of Ms. Lebedieva.
It is very important to note that Alona Pavlivna, being the daughter of Pavlo Lebediev, the former Minister of Defense of Ukraine, since 2007, when Pavlo Lebediev became a People’s Deputy of Ukraine, has been conducting absolutely independent operations in the field of development of Ukrainian industrial, logistics, agricultural enterprises. These companies created new jobs and were always focused exclusively on effective work to contribute to the development of the economy of both the regions of operation and Ukraine as a whole.
We can confidently state that neither before the start of the war in 2014, nor later, even more so, were any of the group’s businesses ever aimed at supporting the aggressor-country in any way. Quite the contrary, the main task Ms. Lebedieva has been implementing was the introduction of such technologies and productions that would allow the company to replace russian goods on the Ukrainian market. Consequently, limiting the income of any russian businesses that undermined the economic security of Ukraine through their activities. In confirmation of this, it is worth noting the complex activities of the group’s enterprises in 2018-2020 under the leadership of Alona Lebedieva and in cooperation with the largest manufacturers of freight wagons of Ukraine aiming to introduce countermeasures against the import of decommissioned freight wagons from the russian federation to Ukraine. This work was concluded with the victory of Ukrainian business and introduction of an embargo on the import of wagons from March 1, 2020.
In 2017-2023 Alona Lebedieva initiated many meetings at the highest level, numerous press conferences, sent dozens of letters to the President and Prime Minister of Ukraine, as well as initiated development of draft regulations with the aim of reducing the negative influence of the russian fderation on the strategic sphere of railways transportation in Ukraine. Information about all this can be found on the Internet and in dozens of mass media.
Starting from February 2022, despite the occupation and the actual loss of a number of enterprises in the Kharkiv, Luhansk, and Zaporizhzhia regions, the Aurum Group’s companies, under the undisputed leadership of Alona Lebedieva, began to actively help the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the refugees, and the needy, sending help worth millions of hryvnias from their own funds to the causes contributing to our common victory.
All of the above shows that certain structures in power, in our opinion, solely due to the presence of the family connection, exert ungrounded pressure both on Alona Lebedieva and on thousands of jobs in the companies that are part of the Aurum Group, controlled by her. The gain from this will be short-lived – political and reputational gain for some security officers from the SSU, as well as false public resonance, but in fact such actions are an internal sabotage against the country’s economy and trust in the rule of law in Ukraine. After all, no court will be able to confirm the validity of the accusations, the country will lose a patriotic business, thousands of Ukrainians will lose their jobs, and small cities – their main source of taxes.
We are calling for stopping the politically biased persecution of the director of the Aurum Group, Alona Lebedieva, and analyzing the situation objectively!
Slava Ukraini! Glory to Ukraine
Representatives of the employees at TOV “Aurum Group” and TOV “Aurum Trans”:
Petition of the employees of “Dizelny Zavod” LLC
regarding political pressure on Lebedieva A.P.
We are the employees of the “Dizelny Zavod” LLC (Kryvyi Rih), which is part of the Aurum Group of companies founded by Lebedieva Alona Pavlivna.
Our enterprise is one of the five industrial enterprises in Ukraine certified for the production of mainline freight railway wagons, their components and spare parts for them, as well as for conducting all types of repair work for railway freight rolling stock.
The staff of our company considers the Decision of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine dated May 12, 2023 to impose sanctions to A.P. Lebedieva to be baseless and unfounded. Being a shareholder of our company, neither in the decisions of Ms. Lebedieva, nor in the activity of the company throughout the entire time of its operation, were there or could there be any signs of violations of national interests, national security, sovereignty or territorial integrity of Ukraine, rights, freedoms and legitimate interests of Ukrainian citizens, society and the state.
Policy of A.P. Lebedieva has always been aimed at building and developing the industrial potential of the enterprise in order to strengthen the independence and self sustenance of the railway sector in Ukraine. Thus, in 2017, after several years of the plant being shut down due to the crisis of 2014-2015, Ms. Lebedieva invested tens of millions of hryvnias in launching and resuming the production of mainline freight railway wagons at the facilities of “Dizelny Zavod” LLC, which created hundreds of new jobs and strengthened the production potential of the region.
Alona Pavlivna led active public work together with our partners from PJSC “Kryukivskyi Railway Car Building Works” and PJSC “Dniprovagonmash” to ban the import of freight wagons from russia, which had exceeded 20 thousand units only from 2015 to 2019, thus putting the Ukraine’s wagon building industry on the brink of survival, and the industry of railway transportation – at risk of dependence on russian wagons. Thanks to her efforts as well, the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine developed and implemented an embargo on the import of wagons of russian origin, as well as a ban on their temporary import, which can be easily confirmed by the publications in the media on the relevant topic.
Actions of A.P. Lebedieva speak of her responsible attitude to the protection of the industrial manufacturing in Ukraine from being destroyed, and to the prevention of the russian wagons’ expansion that would inevitably put at risk the independence and stability of the work of the strategically important railway transportation industry of Ukraine, and therefore, the inclusion of Ms. Lebedieva in the sanction lists is, in our opinion, obviously groundless.
On top of this, we would like to emphasize that this decision threatens stable functioning of our enterprise, which will consequently lead to a forced reduction of staff and losses for the economic potential of the region.
According to the employees of “Dizelny Zavod” LLC, Alona Lebedieva confirms with her actions that she is a patriot of Ukraine, and runs an exclusively pro-Ukrainian business, which calls for any accusations about the contrary be thoroughly, objectively and impartially examined.
