Zaporizhzhya regional council deputy registers business in Russia

Zaporizhzhya regional council deputy registers business in Russia

A Ukrainian company from occupied Melitopol was spotted at an agricultural exhibition in the United Arab Emirates flying the Russian flag. The company belongs to Lyudmyla Zheleva, a current deputy from the Servant of the People party in the Zaporizhzhya Regional Council. She registered her business in accordance with Russian law. The faction plans to deprive the deputy of his mandate .

This was reported by Investigative.Info.

The capital of the United Arab Emirates hosted the Gulfood agricultural exhibition, where the products of Melitopol Oil Extraction Plant LLC were noticed. Before the full-scale invasion, the company produced vegetable oil and its products under the Ukrainian flag, but now it appears the business is operating in temporarily occupied territories and has been re-registered under Russian law.

Melitopol Oil Extraction Plant LLC is now owned by Lyudmyla and Serhiy Zhelev. Lyudmyla is a current deputy of the Zaporizhzhya Regional Council, and her husband was a deputy from the OPZZH in the Zaporizhzhya Regional Council of the previous convocation. Serhiy refused his mandate to become the honorary consul of Bulgaria in Ukraine.

The couple, it seems, are now living in the temporarily occupied territories. Lyudmyla has not attended the session of the regional council since the beginning of the large-scale invasion, and the Bulgarian media wrote, with reference to the ex-mayor of Melitopol Ivan Fedorov, that Serhiy Zhelev was kidnapped by the Russians.

Serhiy and Lyudmyla founded several businesses in Melitopol in 2023 in accordance with Russian legislation. Among these businesses there is a creamery, which was noticed at an exhibition in Dubai. The official Russian register of legal entities indicates that the man and woman have Russian citizenship and a tax number.