Putin's Wings

The Volga-Dnepr Group is, without exaggeration, the wings of Putin’s regime. Nearly two years into the full-scale war, they continue flying because only Ukraine has imposed sanctions on all 24 companies of the group; Canada has imposed sanctions on three of the 24, and that’s about it... No other sanctions have been applied, and so the work of the main criminal airline continues. The following paragraphs will be devoted to the air transport infrastructure, routes and goals of flights of the odious company. We at Trap Aggressor entertain a sincere hope that this will facilitate the work of sanctions specialists in the US, UK, Germany, the Netherlands, Ireland and Luxembourg, where the airline’s representative offices still operate.

The Volga-Dnepr Group is an aviation holding company headquartered in the Moscow region. The main type of their activity is charter cargo transportation on heavy transport aircraft, particularly on An-124-100 “Ruslan” and Il-76TD-90VD. The co-owners of the holding are Russian businessmen Alexei Isaykin and Sergey Shklyanik. In 2022, faced with international sanctions, the businessmen handed over the administration of some companies to the holding's top management. This, however, did not change much.

Back in 1991, Alexei Isaykin was the chairman of the board of the company, which was already transporting military cargo and working with the Russian Ministry of Defense. Therefore, it is not surprising that this particular company was chosen for sensitive military shipments of the Russian Federation in recent years. In addition to previous cooperation with the Russian military since the 1990s, Volga-Dnepr was chosen owing to the fact that the fleet of An-124-100 “Ruslan” aircraft of the airline is newer than the transport aircraft of the Russian Air Force. The company has on its balance sheet aircraft built at the turn of this century (late 1990s — early 2000s), so this purely technical advantage also played a role.

After the airspace was closed to Russian aircraft at the start of the full-scale invasion, four Volga-Dnepr aircraft were grounded at the airports of countries in the so-called sanctions coalition. (One An-124-100 “Ruslan” (number RA-82078) was detained at the Toronto International Airport; the Canadian authorities have already started the confiscation process in favor of Ukraine. Three An-124-100 “Ruslan” aircraft (number RA- 82043, RA-82045 and RA-82046) were “stopped” at the Leipzig/Halle airport in Germany.)

What is important, the Ukrainian judiciary did not lag behind either. On March 21, 2022, the Sviatoshinskyi District Court of the city of Kyiv seized 12 An-124-100 “Ruslan” aircraft of the abovementioned airline. Already on August 29, 2023, the Higher Anti-Corruption Court of Ukraine applied sanctions to the Volga-Dnepr Group in general in the form of confiscation of assets, namely six D-18T aircraft engines.

Overall, however, sanctions restrictions are currently not sufficient to stop a company from operating.

Are there grounds for sanctions? Definitely.

 

Cooperation with enterprises of the military-industrial complex of the Russian Federation

According to the database of Russian tenders and the information from our sources, for a certain period of time, including the months leading up to the full-scale invasion, Volga-Dnepr fulfilled Russian government contracts for the government of the Russian Federation and their armed forces. The company is deeply integrated into the logistics processes of the Russian military machine. In particular, in 2016–2017, it concluded four contracts for the performance of charter flights for the needs of the 81st Armored Repair Plant, including the use of An-124-100 “Ruslan” aircraft in two cases.

The second case: in 2017, Volga-Dnepr Airlines and the 223rd Flying Unit State Airlines signed a contract to service a flight on the route Chkalovskyi — Dushanbe (Tajikistan) — Samara — Chkalovskyi (Russia) on a Tu-134 aircraft. By the way, Chkalovskyi is the base airport of the 223rd flying squadron, situated near Moscow.

The third case: in 2017, Volga-Dnepr Airlines and the All-Russian Scientific Research Institute of Electromechanics (VNIIEM Corporation) concluded a charter agreement for the purpose of fulfilling the state defense order of the Roscosmos group of companies. It will be recalled that Roscosmos unites dozens of military enterprises of the Russian Federation.

The fourth case: in 2015, the Federal Research and Development Center JSC Scientific Production Association “Mars” and Volga-Dnepr Airlines concluded a contract for the transportation of cargo, in particular ship control systems, to the Amur Shipyard and the Shipyard “Northern Shipyard,” which are under sanctions.

The fifth case: in 2017, the Energomash Scientific Production Association and Volga-Dnepr Airlines signed an agreement for the air transportation of RD-181 engines. By the way, Energomash is part of the sanctioned Roscosmos.

The sixth case: in 2017, Progress Rocket Space Centre and Volga-Dnepr Airlines signed an agreement on cargo air transportation. It is Progress Centre that develops space vehicles, complexes and systems; rockets and satellites developed by this Russian state structure are used by the Russian military to invade Ukraine.

The seventh case: in 2015, the Vympel shipyard and Volga-Dnepr Airlines signed contracts for the air transportation of military boats by an An-124-100 aircraft. The specified shipbuilding plant specializes in the production of medium and small-tonnage sea and river vessels and boats for military and civilian purposes.

The eighth case: in 2018, Volga-Dnepr Airlines and Russian Space Systems signed two contracts for charter transportation. In turn, this counterparty from the rocket and space industry specializes in the development, production and operation of space information systems and is part of Roskosmos. I believe that the global navigation satellite system GLONASS, which is used in the war against Ukraine, is already known to everyone on a par with the GPS system.

 

Transportation of military products after the start of the full-scale invasion

It is clear that after the full-scale invasion started, sanctions restrictions increased the need for air transportation of military and dual-purpose goods. That is why the higher military-political leadership of the Russian Federation once again involved the Volga-Dnepr Group in order to circumvent sanctions and smuggle the relevant “goods” into the territory of Russia.

In particular, according to available information, at the end of 2022, An-124-100 “Ruslan” aircraft of Volga-Dnepr Airlines transported military aircraft of the Russian Aerospace Forces, particularly Su-30 fighters, which were undergoing overhaul at the 558th Repair Enterprise in Belarusian Baranovichi airfield.

The following cases speak for themselves no less eloquently. In particular, during the flights of the Volga-Dnepr plane over the territory of Kazakhstan in order to hide its true destination, the automatic dependent surveillance-broadcast (ADS-B) system was turned off, which, given the direction of movement, gives grounds to believe that the flights were made to countries that covertly provide military aid to the Russian Federation or through which dual-purpose goods necessary for the production of military equipment and aircraft are purchased, including to Iran and Syria.

On July 25, 2022, the An-124-100 “Ruslan” aircraft (board number RA-82079) flew from Krasnoyarsk (Russia) also with its ADS-B turned off, and already on July 27, without changing the flight path, it took off in the reverse direction and had not turned on its ADS-B until it entered the Kazakhstani airspace. Where did they fly to, I wonder? China? North Korea?

Another extremely interesting flight mentioned above took place on January 30, 2023, when the An-124-100 “Ruslan” aircraft (board number RA-82047) was flying from Krasnoyarsk (Russia) to an unknown destination. The flight path may indicate that the plane was headed for Iran or Syria. The next day, the flight path of the said plane did not change during the return flight to Krasnoyarsk. Over the territory of Kazakhstan, ADS-B was reactivated. They play with this "transponder" as they wish, actually not only violating the generally accepted rules of air traffic, but also putting the planes of other countries at risk.

Accordingly, such flights could have carried Russian weapons or personnel from Syria. We also assume that Syrian mercenaries recruited by Russia for the war against Ukraine could be transported in this manner. In turn, the cargo from Iran could include Shahed-136/131 UAVs, which constantly attack the territory of Ukraine, as well as Mojaher UAVs and artillery shells, which the Russian armed forces lack for the occupation of Ukraine.

 

Delivery of electronics from “friendly” countries

After the start of the full-scale invasion, the company's aircraft (in particular, board numbers RA-82044, RA-82047, RA-82074, RA-82077, RA-82079, RA82081) significantly increased the number of flights to so-called Russia-leaning countries, including China and Vietnam. According to our data, the transportation was related to sanctioned goods and military products.

Why did they fly there? The answer is simple, because even offices of this private company are registered there. Now we will present some facts about Volga-Dnepr's involvement in the transportation of sanctioned goods. For instance, on April 1, 2022, in pursuance of the request of the President of the Russian Federation, the Russian government and Volga-Dnepr signed an agreement on cooperation regarding regular cargo air transportation between the Russian capital and the cities of countries “friendly” to Russia, namely China, India, Turkey, the UAE, Azerbaijan, Pakistan and Vietnam. These countries are used by Russia to supply goods to circumvent sanctions. It is not surprising that the leadership of Moscow, together with the Russian government, facilitated the prompt obtaining of the necessary permits for international flights and customs clearance of goods. As a result, during the period until September 2022 alone, Volga-Dnepr planes transported about 4,000 tons of cargo.

In one month, in May 2022, the Il-76TD aircraft of Volga-Dnepr Airlines (board number RA-76952) made a flight from Noi Bai Airport (Hanoi, Vietnam) to the Russian city of Barnaul. According to available information from our sources, the cargo belonged to the category of electrical goods and electrotechnical products and contained products of King Pai Technology Co. LTD, which specializes in the supply of electronic components, including microcircuits, crystal oscillators, solid state relays and printed circuit boards. A large consignment of electronic products, including those produced in the US, the Netherlands and Switzerland, was sent to Russia on the specified flight. Who said that sanctions restrictions apply to everyone? I almost forgot: the Chinese company King Pai Technology Co. LTD is subject to US sanctions for supplying products to the Russian military-industrial complex, including Radioavtomatika LLC. The latter's products are used in the production of cruise missile guidance systems.

Another flight, now of the An-124-100 “Ruslan” aircraft (board number RA82081), took place in early September 2022 from Noi Bai Airport (Hanoi, Vietnam) to the Russian city of Ulan-Ude, carrying American-made electronic components. According to sources with knowledge of the situation, seven pallets with specific products were loaded onto the plane in the presence of Vietnamese military representatives.

Already this year, flights of Volga-Dnepr aircraft were carried out on the Ulyanovsk-Shenzhen (Guangdong province) and Moscow-Shenzhen (Guangdong province) routes. Most likely, this is motivated by Russia's growing interest in cooperation with Chinese electronics factories, concentrated in Guangdong province. Among the main customers were the companies engaged in the production of weapons, namely Rostec, the Roselectronica holding, United Engine Corporation LLC (ZALA Aero) and the Alabuga Special Economic Zone (Tatarstan), where the production of the Shahed-136 UAV is concentrated.

Generalized information about the participation of the Volga-Dnepr Group in other flights can be found in the infographic below. What is interesting, there are routes serving the interests of not only the armed forces of the Russian Federation, but also of the Wagner Group.

 

Flights to Serbia, China, UAE: sticking to their guns every time

On March 27, 2022, the An-124-100 “Ruslan” aircraft (board number RA-82074) transported 85 tons of aviation equipment from Dubai (UAE) to Moscow. Among the cargo there were components for aircraft engines, aggregates, nose propellers, engine PW901A (Boeing).

In the period from July 10 to 19, 2022, the An-124-100 “Ruslan” aircraft (board number RA-82077) was in Johannesburg (Republic of South Africa). The Embassy of the Russian Federation explained this flight as the delivery of cargo to the AAD-2022 international exhibition in the interests of enterprises of the Russian defense-industrial complex. And since Russia used only small-scale samples of equipment at the said exhibition, we assume that this plane was loaded with up to 40 tons of military cargo produced by the Denel corporation. After South Africa, the flight range of the aircraft decreased from 8,000 km to 4,000 km, which corresponds to its loading from 80 to 120 tons. Most likely, the plane was loaded with components of ammunition and explosives, which were stored in the warehouses of the South African company Denel and were to be disposed of.

Given the fact that aviation fuel supplier British Petroleum refused to refuel the Russian plane during its stay at Johannesburg International Airport and a significant political outcry in the Republic of South Africa, further such flights were cancelled. It is emblematic that in response to this, the British Petroleum company was suspended from servicing the international airports of the Republic of South Africa, and Russian planes began to be serviced at the country's military airfields. A great way out of a highly precarious geopolitical situation.

On October 23 and 24, 2022, the An-124-100 “Ruslan” aircraft (board number RA-82081) transported sanctioned cargo along the route Al-Maktoum (Dubai, UAE) — Zvarnots (Yerevan, Armenia) — Sheremetyevo (Moscow, Russian Federation) with a total weight of 69 tons, which included drilling equipment, charging stations, laptops, motherboards, power supplies, etc.

Interestingly, in 2023, Volga-Dnepr resumed the transportation of dangerous goods and has permission to transport goods of any class of danger from China to Russia. In September and October of this year, the airline's planes made several flights from China, including with special cargo.

No less interesting were the flights of Volga-Dnepr planes blocked in Germany and Canada. They were carried out by order of Rosoboronexport and the government of the Russian Federation to countries in Africa, where the Wagner Group operated during this period, and to other countries where Russia had a military partnership and geopolitical interests.

On December 12, 2011, the An-124-100 “Ruslan” aircraft (board number RA-82043), which is currently blocked in Germany, delivered two Mi-35M helicopters to Baku (Azerbaijan) for the State Border Service of Azerbaijan. Let us explain: in September 2010, the Azerbaijani side signed a contract with Rosoboronexport for the supply of 24 Mi-35M helicopters manufactured by Russian Helicopters. On May 12, 2016, the same aircraft delivered 4 Mi-35P helicopters to Luanda (Republic of Angola) from Chita (Russia), where the helicopters were being repaired at the 810th Aircraft Repair Plant.

On October 4, 2017, an An-124-100 “Ruslan” with board number RA-82045, which is also blocked in Germany, delivered five MiG-29 fighters to Serbia. In 2015, the third “Ruslan” blocked in Germany with the board number RA-82046 delivered two Su-27 SK fighters, which are on the balance sheet of the Indonesian Air Force. These two combat aircraft were repaired in the Russian Federation.

An-124-100 “Ruslan” (board number RA-82078), which is now blocked in Canada, performed flights that may be associated with the Wagner Group and presumably carried Russian weapons. In 2018–2021, it performed flights from Germany to Mali, from France to Burkina Faso and Niger. There were also flights from Greece to Djibouti and Niger, from Portugal to Ethiopia, from Mozambique to the Republic of South Africa, from Kenya to Tanzania, from Malawi to Côte d'Ivoire, from Spain to Burkina Faso and from the UAE to Egypt.

As you can see, the geography of air transportation of aircraft controlled by the Volga-Dnepr Group is impressive. Therefore, the entire air transport infrastructure and routes followed by the planes of the Volga-Dnepr company must be verified by the authorized bodies of Ukraine and our Western partners in order to impose sanctions on the said private group of companies.

Thorough examination is desirable. After all, for example, Aircraft Maintenance and Engineering Service GmbH is, to put it mildly, connected with Volga-Dnepr. Until April 2015, Aircraft Maintenance and Engineering Service GmbH was known as Volga-Dnepr Technics Gmbh. The company's major production facilities are located at Leipzig Airport and in Frankfurt am Main, where a line maintenance station is located. In Leipzig, the company performed maintenance in the hangar complex of the Leipzig/Halle airport for Boeing 747, Boeing 737CL and Boeing 777 aircraft, as well as maintenance of An-124-100 “Ruslan” and Il-76 aircraft.

Among other things, the company carried out maintenance and repair of aircraft of the Russian transport airline Airbridge Cargo LLC (under the sanctions of Canada and Ukraine), which is also part of the Volga-Dnepr Group. Interestingly, according to information published on the official website, the company has 18 aircraft at its disposal, including four Boeings 747-400ERF, 13 Boeings 747-8F and one Boeing 777 F.

Finally, in order to simplify the work of the “sanctioning” authorities, we will list the legal entities (see infographic 2) that are part of the aforesaid group. Please note how many of them are under sanctions and how many are still not. Also note the jurisdictions where they are registered. And then ponder the real effectiveness of sanctions and the pace at which our partners implement them.

The full-scale war is in its second year.

Read this article in russian and Ukrainian.