Ukrainian Intelligence Sources Report Ambassador Yovanovitch Lied To Congress, Protected Russian Oligarch On Sanctions List
KYIV — Sources within the Ukrainian intelligence services have informed CD Media that in 2016 then Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch forced Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko and the Ukrainian security services to cease investigations into activities going on at the Kharkov tractor plant, a massive Soviet-built installation producing agricultural equipment and also repairing damaged military equipment from the war in Donbass against pro-Russian separatists. First a little background. The plant at Kharkov, known as Kharkivskyi Traktornyi Zavod (KhTZ), is a sprawling industrial facility built by the Soviets under Stalin to capitalize on collective farming in Ukraine, the breadbasket of the Soviet Union. The facility languished in unprofitability and went bankrupt in 2007 under the ownership of Ukrainian oligarch Alexander Yaroslavsky, a close friend of Russian billionaire Oleg Deripaska who is on the U.S. Treasury’s sanctioned list. Deripaska (via a nominee foreign third party owner) purchased the factory from Yaroslavsky during the bankruptcy process and brought the plant back into the black over the next several years.
