The Occupiers Want to Increase the Production of Clay And Limestone in the Captured Territories of Donetsk Region

Mariupol port can be used to export stolen raw materials from temporarily occupied territories.

The Russian occupiers in the temporarily occupied territories of the Donetsk region plan to issue so-called “licenses” for the extraction of minerals in the region, reports the Center of National Resistance.

According to the Center, the occupation administration has approved a list of minerals for which appropriate “licenses” will be issued. Among them, in particular, clay, limestone, sand, etc.

Such “licenses” have no legal force and are intended to “legalize” the looting of Donetsk region, which is still happening now.

It is noted that earlier such a list of minerals for looting was created in the temporarily occupied part of the Zaporizhzhia region. At the same time, the Ministry of Nature of the Russian Federation is the "curator" of the project on the looting of Ukrainian subsoil.

It should be noted that before the start of Russia’s war against Ukraine, the annexation of Crimea and the seizure of part of the territory of Donbass in 2014, clay from the quarries of the Donetsk region was sent for export to the port of Mariupol through the Yasinuvata railway junction. Up to 3 million tons of this raw material were transshipped through this harbor annually. After 2014, transshipment of clay in Mariupol was resumed in 2018.

We will remind that in February-July 2023, about 160,400 tons of coal from the occupied territories of Donetsk and Luhansk regions arrived in Turkey. Coal from at least ten producers arrived in Turkey during the specified period. According to statistics, Turkey was the largest export destination of coal from the occupied regions of Ukraine – it accounted for 95% of deliveries during this period.