Building equipment produced by Finnish company Junttan Oy was spotted at the site of Crimean Bridge construction, which is led by Russia in breach of the international law.

This video shows Junttan hydraulic hammer at work during the bridge construction.

https://youtu.be/kJBPvT4I3ug

This hydraulic hammer made by the Finnish company is used by Kolomna Territorial Firm (KTF) Mostootryad-125, a branch of PJSC MOSTOTREST (Russia).

Junttan Powerpack 30CCU is the most powerful modification in the model range. The hydrohammer looks brand new in the photo – with no signs of long-term operation. Technical specification on manufacturer’s website (uploaded in November 2015) makes it possible to accurately identify the power pack model by the placement of assembly covers and rigging shackles.

JUNTTAN OY website supports several languages and has a Russian version, where it provides information about operational support and maintenance of the equipment, and personnel training.

JUNTTAN OY has an authorized agent in Russia – GLAVALYANS GROUP OF COMPANIES – that, among other services, offers vibrating pile hammers for lease.

From the open sources we discovered that in December 2016 the equipment for the illegal construction of the Crimean Bridge over the Kerch Strait was supplied by the Crimean leasing company GENLEASING LLC (its CEO is Vitaliy Kosenko).

We assume that this company was created with the aim to bypass the sanctions imposed on Russia, the aggressor country, due to the occupation of the Crimea and the unleashing of war in the East of Ukraine. Genleasing LLC appeared in September 2014 and immediately rose to become one of the leaders in the Russian market.

On the Genleasing’s website there is Partners section which lists companies that offer to supply equipment and other goods produced by companies in the EU and the U.S. to the occupied Crimea.

The financing of the supply of equipment for the construction of the Crimean Bridge is provided by Genbank JSC (under the sanctions of the U.S. and Ukraine).

The bank is a shell entity established to work in the occupied Crimea; it is refinanced through other banks.

This video shows the delivery of building equipment.

Such equipment requires special maintenance and is dependent on the supply of components. In the open sources we found a corresponding tender that was held on August 28, 2015 by OAO Motostroy No.6 to purchase hydraulic cylinders for Junttan HHK7 hydraulic hammer. This tender that had foreseen the supply of high-tech equipment set to operate in difficult conditions was closed within just 3 days, which suggests that this tender was fixed and its results were known in advance.

Another photo of the Finnish JUNTTAN equipment surfaced in the article about the progress of the Crimean Bridge construction. The works were performed by Stroyotryad-125 on the Crimean coast.

Two hydrohammers were also spotted on the Ukrainian island of Tuzla (located in the middle of the Strait of Kerch), currently occupied by Russia.

Finnish hydraulic hammer was spotted again at the construction of the fairway bridge pier.

Two JUNTTAN hydraulic hammers standing at the fairway construction site can be seen in this video.

https://youtu.be/l5xuAlWj_2w

At the bridge construction site we also discovered a vibrating pile hammer made by Müller company (Germany).

French company PTC-Fayat also could not miss the chance to bypass the sanctions and infringe Ukraine’s sovereignty. Check out this video (copy) for the details.

https://youtu.be/MGT8dWEkvT0

Another Russian construction company Mostostroy-11 purchased a dredge and cutting tools from Italian company S. GIOVANNI IN MARIGNANO in March 2017.

While there is no mention of the Crimean Bridge on the website of Tyumen bridge building company, there is still a confirmation of its participation in illegal works which can be found in online publications.

Would such equipment be needed on that stage of the illegal construction? The answer is yes. Intensive dredging works took place before the removal of the massive bridge arch from the building slip; they were required to let pontoons and tugboats approach the site.

The video with Tyumen bridge developers also shows equipment very similar to the one produced by BRUCE Piling Equipment company from South Korea.

There is an exclusive representative of the South Korean BRUCE plant in Russia – Kopernik group of companies, which, as they write, “is a guarantee of attractive price terms, high quality service, and prompt delivery of equipment and spare parts”.

Even if all this equipment was delivered before the introduction of sanctions, it still requires components and support, and this is clearly stated on the websites of all companies that got on our radar.

There was one more purchase by Mostotrest-11: in 2011 spare parts for a hydraulic hammer of S-90 type were delivered from the Netherlands.

The photo of this hydrohammer can be found on the company’s website.

With all this said, was there such equipment at the Crimean Bridge construction site? Yes, we could easily find it on the Ukrainian island of Tuzla.

This video shows Dutch hydraulic hammer IHC-90 at the construction site.

https://youtu.be/0uolqfMLkDY

Here is another piece of Dutch equipment (video).

https://youtu.be/NlITfIhWQXE

This particular video demonstrates yet another hydrohammer that we have not identified yet. Both pieces of equipment look new.

There are at least 3 Dutch hydraulic hammers in this video.

 

This footage could capture the brand name of the hammer (timing – 2:08).

We do not know for sure if the equipment we learned about from Mostostroy-11’s bills of lading was used in the Kerch Strait and infringed the sovereignty of Ukraine or it was employed at the company’s construction sites in Siberia, this falls out of our cognizance. However, we do believe that there is enough circumstantial evidence for Italian and Dutch companies to request a report from the Russian side on how and where their equipment was used and make this report publicly available.

Now, back to the Finnish company. We asked JUNTTAN OY management to answer our questions about the use of their equipment at the illegal construction which infringes the sovereignty of Ukraine. Here we publish our correspondence:

At the moment we do not know yet when the delivery of this equipment took place – before or after the introduction of sanctions, and if any spare parts or services, such as technical maintenance or training of personnel, were supplied with regard to the equipment employed for illegal construction works in the occupied Crimea. The email that we received confirms the fact that these types of equipment have a 20-year life cycle – basically, this is the warranty period. We assume that the replacement of any equipment component during the warranty period is assigned to a specific piece of equipment; and therefore the Finnish company or its representatives in Russia know the equipment holder. Our question about what the company did to prevent its equipment that had already been sent to Russia, an aggressor state, before the sanctions from ending up at the illegal construction site remains unanswered. We only got the standard response that the company knows about the sanctions and observes all effective rules and restrictions. Then why do we keep finding more and more pieces of JUNTTAN equipment at the illegal construction sites in Crimea? Obviously, JUNTTAN needs to review the steps it takes to ensure that sanctions are in place, because current company’s policy looks very inefficient.

Who has the burden of proof? It is the task of government institutions. Journalists look for the facts and make them known to the general public. In this case we discovered high-tech equipment of companies from different countries that support sanctions against Russia, and this equipment has been working at the illegal construction of the bridge being built by an aggressor state in breach of the international law. Without this equipment the illegal construction of the Crimean Bridge would not be possible. So, now it is time for government authorities to ask questions the management of companies in their jurisdiction: when was the equipment delivered, what were the contract terms, were there any subsequent deliveries of spare parts, did the company provide any technical support or train the personnel, etc.?

We would also like to remind the manufacturers that it is not a good practice to do business as usual with an aggressor state – Russia is highly toxic, and any company seeking extra profit to the detriment of the law will only ruin its reputation. This is well understood in Ukraine, which has to defend itself against the military aggression of its neighbor, and this is something worth to be learned by the countries of the EU. Has Finland really forgotten the lessons of its own history?

Update:

Here is another video from the bridge construction.

It shows the hydraulic hammer that belongs to Mostootryad-*9, the first digit is either 5 or 9. This is Allpacks 125-FM model of the hydrohammer (Dutch equipment).

When we googled this model, we found the manufacturer’s website (archive). And there…

And there we saw this photo, which had been uploaded in September 2016. In the photo you can see the same vibrating pile hammer that belongs to the same company – Mostootryad. The only difference is that this photo shows a rear view of the hydrohammer.

Most likely, the full name of the contractor company is Mostootryad-99. There are many online sources that mention Mostootryad-99 in connection with the illegal construction works led in violation of the international law in the Kerch Strait on the Ukrainian island of Tuzla, currently occupied by Russia. This construction company is registered in Serpukhov (Russia). The main page of company’s website lists piling equipment with the small driving depth limit of 19 meters. This means that the company had to buy or lease new equipment for the Crimean Bridge construction project; its price as of January 2017 would be around 270,000 US dollars.

Apparently, the Netherlands do not learn from history.