Two airlines registered in Ukraine, Khors and Dart, may be stripped of their licenses for allegedly providing aircrafts to U.S.-sanctioned entities in Syria, Iran, and Iraq, according to Ukraine’s infrastructure minister, Volodymyr Omelyan.
The minister’s statement followed a Reuters investigation, which revealed that Russian military contractors travelled to Syria from the southern Russian city of Rostov-on-Don aboard Airbus A320 planes. The planes had previously been registered to Khors or Dart and were then sold our leased out, before coming into the possession of Syrian and Iranian airlines.
According to Reuters, since Jan. 5, 2017, the Syrian airline Cham Wings has secretly made 51 flights between Damascus or Latakia and Rostov on Airbus A320 planes either directly or indirectly provided by the Ukrainian companies.
Over the past seven years, the firms purchased at least 84 second-hand planes built by Airbus and Boeing in the United States and the European Union through a series of non-sanctioned companies. At least 40 of the aircraft ended up being operated in Syria, Iraq, and Iran.
Both Khors and Dart were founded by Ukrainian national Serhiy Tomchani, a Soviet marine major, and former colleagues from the military. Speaking to a Reuters reporter in Kyiv, Tomchani denied any wrongdoing, despite the fact that both he and Khors have been subject to U.S. sanctions since 2011.
Commenting on the Reuters investigation, Infrastructure Minister Omelyan said he had initiated an inquiry into the case.
“If, based on the results of the inquiry by the State Aviation Administration, the allegations are confirmed, the Infrastructure Ministry will recommend that the government and the Security and Defense Council blacklist the aforementioned companies and their owners,” the minister said.
“Their certificates will be dismissed,” he added.
For several years, private military contractors working for Russia’s Wagner Group have been fighting in support of Syrian dictator Bashar Assad. Wagner was founded by Dmitry Utkin, a former military intelligence officer, and is believed to be controlled by Yevgeny Prigozhin, an oligarch close to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Wagner mercenaries first saw action in 2014 in Ukraine’s Donbas region, where they fought alongside Russia-backed separatists.
