Ware Factory In Gomel Supplies Combat Drones For The Russian Armed Forces
6- 4.12.2025, 21:05
- 9,718
Bypassing sanctions.
Homel manufacturer of tableware "Zavod Santex" is engaged in a large-scale business to supply components for combat drones for the Russian army. This was reported on Thursday, December 4, by the Belarusian Investigative Center (BRC), which prepared an investigation together with the community of anonymous hacktivists "Cyberpartisans".
The investigation revealed that the company supplies Chinese drones, as well as goods, the nature of which is not disclosed in the documents, to the Russian company Rustakt, from which Zavod Santeks received more than 14 billion rubles (converted to over $152 million). According to Ukraine's GUR, Rustakt is one of the main manufacturers of FPV drones for the Russian army, which it is using in the war in Ukraine.
BRC points out that 95 percent of this company is owned by Minsk native Pavel Nikitin, who moved to Russia in the 2000s. He is also the owner or co-owner of about 20 companies; some of which work for the Russian Defense Ministry, the Russian Interior Ministry, and Rosgvardia. It is he, according to investigators, who is also listed as one of the owners of the Belarusian "Plant Suntex", while another co-owner in 2018 was Pavel Nikitin's twin brother Egor.
BRC writes that in 2022-2023, this Gomel factory, helping to circumvent sanctions, sold 309 drones to Russia to the Chinese company DJI for $2 million. In total, according to the calculations of Belarusian investigators, 14 companies of Belarus sold over 20 thousand drones worth $34 million to Russia from 2022 to 2025.
Through "Plant Suntex" Nikitin also supplied Western components from the Czech Republic, Italy, Poland and the United States to Russia after the sanctions against Moscow, BRC notes.
"Rustakt" has been under the sanctions of the European Union and Switzerland since December 2024. The VT-40 kamikaze drones (also known as Sudoplatov) produced by the company form the basis of the armament of the classified Russian drone technology center Rubikon, which is credited with the successes of the Russian counter-offensive in Kursk Oblast, as well as in the battles for Kursk Oblast and Pokrovsk.
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