Partners of Agro Gas Trading are convinced: despite billions in deductions in favor of the Odessa Port Plant and budgets of various levels, the state, instead of protecting effective and honest business, responded with criminal charges.
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In an interview with RBC-Ukraine , partners of Agro Gas Trading (AGT), Volodymyr Kolot and Oleksandr Gorbunenko , stated that during the period of cooperation with the OPP in 2019−2021, the company not only ensured the restoration of the enterprise's operations after many years of downtime, but also fully financed its activities – without any state support.
“We have proven that an honest, independent private company is able to ensure the profitability of a state-owned plant without a single penny from the budget. It is enough to compare the indicators of the OPP – production and financial – during the period of cooperation with AGT and “without AGT”,” said Volodymyr Kolot.
“We are talking about real, documented figures. During the period of cooperation from 2019 to 2021, AGT paid OPP more than 4.5 billion hryvnias in payment for product processing… In addition, we paid more than 2 billion hryvnias in taxes… If we translate this into an economic equivalent, the state and the plant received several times more than we earned. This is a unique case when a private company became a donor to a state-owned enterprise,” he emphasized.
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After the contract with AGT ended, the enterprise stopped again. “And another important fact: after our exit, no company was able to repeat this result. The plant is still standing. This is the best proof that the AGT model worked not on paper, but in real life,” emphasized Oleksandr Gorbunenko.
According to AGT partners, immediately after announcing its intention to participate in privatization, the company faced pressure and criminal prosecution.
“From a legal point of view, these accusations are groundless. The suspicions were announced in violation of procedure, without proper evidence, and, most interestingly, through the media, not through official reports. This is not justice, this is an information operation using anti-corruption institutions as a tool of pressure,” Volodymyr Kolot commented.
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“We didn't receive anything from the state. On the contrary, we gave. But the system, unfortunately, is used to punishing those who act honestly,” he added.
Odessa Port Plant, located in the city of Yuzhne, Odessa region, was one of the largest producers of ammonia and urea in Ukraine. Since 2021, the company has been idle after ending cooperation with AGT.
The privatization auction of the OPP is scheduled for November 25, 2025, with a starting price of almost 4.49 billion hryvnias.
In the photo in the header, Oleksandr Gorbunenko and Volodymyr Kolot. Photo by the press service
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