Yukon Advanced Optics Worldwide, a Lithuania-based manufacturer of night vision devices, says it is planning to withdraw from Russia and Belarus this year.
Liquidation of the company’s Russian business was registered in May, and a sale of its Belarusian business is also planned for this year, with a buyer in the pipeline, according to the company’s 2023 report filed with the Centre of Registers.
“Exit scenarios for the managed companies in Russia and Belarus have been modelled and are being actively pursued. From the date of Russia’s aggressive invasion of Ukraine, the production, sales and supply of products in companies registered in the aggressor countries (Russia and Belarus) were immediately discontinued,” Yukon Advanced Optics Worldwide stated.
Germanas Kavalskis, spokesman for Yukon Group, confirmed to BNS that the company’s withdrawal from Russia and Belarus is still ongoing.
The LRT Investigation Team reported in June last year that the company was still operating in Russia and that its optics were used by the Russian troops fighting in Ukraine.
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According to the report, Mezon-A, which is part of the Yukon Group, received at least 2.3 million euros in sales revenue from Russian customers between the start of the war and June 2023. Mezon-A’s main customers included the CEK group of companies, which sells optical instruments and carries out the Russian government’s defence orders.
Moreover, according to LRT data, Yukon Advanced Optics Worldwide’s Pulsar-branded night sights, manufactured in Belarus, were handed over to the Russian forces fighting in Ukraine in February 2023. LRT and its partners identified dozens of other cases where Pulsar-branded equipment was sent to the front.
Yukon Advanced Optics Worldwide last year saw its net profit increase by one-tenth, to 22.7 million euros, from 20.7 million euros in 2022, but its revenue shrank 2 percent to 111.6 million euros, from 114.2 million euros the year earlier, according to the report.
The company paid out 5 million euros in dividends to its shareholders last year.
The company’s shares are held by 10 individuals. The main beneficiary is Alena Alsheuskaya, a Belarusian citizen, who holds 40.18 percent of the shares, according to the Centre of Registers.
Yukon Advanced Optics Worldwide was founded in Vilnius by Russian and Belarusian nationals two decades ago but, according to the company, there have been no Russian nationals among its shareholders or managers for several years now.
The controlling stake, according to Yukon, was always held by Aliaksandr Alsheuski, a Belarusian national, who died in April 2023.
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