Russian subsidiaries of French agribusiness group Sucden support war effort in Ukraine

Russian subsidiaries of French agribusiness group Sucden have been accused of directly supporting the Russian Armed Forces between 2023 and 2025.

Source: RFI, a French news public radio station, citing European public service channelArte and Mediapart, an independent nonprofit French investigative online newspaper

Details: The investigation showed that the support included supplies of equipment and materiel to units involved in the war against Ukraine.

The journalists report that several Russian subsidiaries of Sucden (Sucres et denrées), owned by French sugar magnate Serge Varsano, provided the Russian military with equipment for weaving camouflage nets and rubber strips to protect armoured vehicles from drones and vehicles. They also took part in raising funds for frontline needs.

At two of Sucden's large sugar plants in Russia's Lipetsk Oblast, local authorities actively enlist businesses to support the Russian Armed Forces. They are the Yelets Sugar Plant (Agrosnabsakhar) and the Dobrinsky Sugar Plant.

The oblast runs a dedicated programme called Lipetsk Industry for Victory, which is said to include 34 companies, though a list of participants is not publicly available.

In May 2024, Vladimir Serikov, speaker of Lipetsk Oblast Council, said that a number of foreign companies in the oblast supported the so-called "special military operation", the term used by the Russian government to describe the Russo-Ukrainian war.

Arte reported that three subsidiaries linked to Sucden featured among the companies were involved in these activities.

The Yelets Sugar Plant handed Russian forces machines for cutting camouflage strips. The Dobrinsky Sugar Plant supplied rubber for protective conveyor belts at the request of the Russian 283rd Motor Rifle Regiment.

The investigation also established that the agricultural firm Yeletsky, which grows grain, helped volunteers buy mesh fabric for the Russian troops in 2025.

In the city of Kamenka in Penza Oblast, one of the oblast's biggest businesses, Atmis-Sakhar, reportedly manufactures ovens for the Russian military, supplied rubber conveyor belts and opened a camouflage net workshop.

In Russia's Krasnodar Krai, Uspensky Sugar Plant reportedly provided transport with anti-drone coverings for moving military personnel. The Uspensky Agropromsoyuz agricultural company bought anti-drone blankets for fighters from the Russian 810th Naval Infantry Brigade, which took part in the capture of Ukrainian city of Mariupol.

RFI said its journalists linked the companies to the effort by tracking social media posts from Russian volunteer networks, which regularly release messages thanking the plants for their support.

In response to media enquiries, Sucden said it launched an internal review. Its press office said the actions were "local private initiatives" carried out without the knowledge or approval of its Paris headquarters.

The company said the actions of its subsidiaries "contradict the group's rules and practice". It added it has strictly complied with European Union sanctions obligations since 2022.

Sucden was founded in the 1950s and entered the Russian market in the early 1990s as a trader before moving into direct industrial investment in the 2000s.

Mediapart said the group's main production cluster is in Russia, with four plants producing 800,000 tonnes of sugar a year and agricultural businesses growing sugar beet and grain across 250,000 hectares.

Nicolas Sarkozy linked to Sucden

The investigation mentioned former French president Nicolas Sarkozy, who works with the French company as a consultant and is a family friend to Serge Varsano.

Mediapart previously reported on Sarkozy's business and political ties in Russia and on his consultancy contracts with Russian companies.

Mediapart reported back in 2023 that the former French president received two transfers totalling €300,000 shortly before and some time after a speech he gave at a New Year's Eve reception hosted by the Russian Direct Investment Fund in late 2018.

Background:

• German prosecutors arrested five people on suspicion of forming a criminal organisation engaged in the illicit procurement of military equipment for Russian companies.
• Eight sanctioned tankers are travelling through the English Channel despite promises by the UK government to take decisive action against vessels of the shadow fleet, which Moscow has used to circumvent Western restrictions on its energy sector imposed since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
• Russia has obtained Michelin aircraft tyres worth more than US$7 million despite EU sanctions.
• Cars made by German companies were delivered to a sanctioned Russian fertiliser producer, Uralkali, via Uzbekistan.

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