Serhi Bubka is accused of selling fuel to the Russian war machine.
Serhi Bubka won several gold medals in his pole vaulting career. ZumaWire / MVPHOTOS
Ukrainian pole vaulting legend Serhi Bubka’s business has been blamed.
Investigative journalism site Bihus namely revealed that Bubka and his brother Vasyl Bubka sell fuel for use by the Russian war machine.
The two jointly own a company called Mont Blanc, through which they have sold fuel for almost a million rubles, i.e. almost 10,000 euros, to the areas occupied by Russia in Donetsk.
From the documents seen by Bihus, it became clear that the Bubka brothers have entered into three different agreements for the sale of fuel to Russia. Vasyl Bubka has signed the contracts, but Serhi Bubka is registered as a co-owner.
For example, on May 4, the Bubka brothers signed an agreement with the rehabilitation center of the Ministry of Health of the Donetsk region for the delivery of 2,000 liters of fuel. Bubka will receive almost 100,000 rubles for this, i.e. about one thousand euros.
According to the second contract, they sold 11.5 thousand liters of fuel for almost 669,000 rubles, i.e. almost 6,600 euros. The contract was signed on May 26. The third collaboration was concluded on May 30.
According to the website’s information, Serhi Bubka would also have received a Russian social security number to facilitate business.
One of the best
Last November, Russia decided that all companies operating in conquered territories must follow Russian legislation. Soon after, one of the Bubka brothers’ companies in Donetsk was registered as a Russian company.
Bubka’s lawyer Serhij Jakimets according to the Bihus website article is a distorted and manipulative version of the truth.
Jakimets says that his client plans to press charges against the journalist who wrote the story.
Serhi Bubka is considered one of the best of all time in his sport. The Ukrainian was the first pole vaulter of all time to jump over six meters. He set a total of 17 world records on outdoor tracks and won six World Championship golds in a row. Three of them came in the colors of the Soviet Union.
He has also celebrated Olympic gold.
– He was once a great athlete, one of the idols of my generation. It turned out that he’s a fake bastard, a writer Armen Gasparyan wrote on Telegram According to NRK.
Honorary member of IOC
Bubka has previously been in the middle of commotion in his home country.
He used to work in the pro-Russian Party of Regions (Party of Regions), which has since been abolished. Bubka also served as the former president of Ukraine Viktor Yanukovych as an advisor. Today, Yanukovych lives in exile in Russia.
However, Bubka has shown his support for Ukraine in Russia’s expanded war of aggression.
Bubka resigned from his position at the head of the Ukrainian Olympic Committee last November. However, he is still a member of the committee.
Bubka is also an honorary member of the International Olympic Committee (IOC). He is responsible for the IOC Solidarity Fund, where his decisions have given grants to Ukrainian athletes during the war.
According to NRK, several Ukrainian athletes demanded that the country’s Olympic Committee answer the accusations against Bubka.