As a part of the investigation to the illegal sale of coal from the occupied territories of Donbas investigators have established that Oleksiy Blyzniuk, son of the former head of Donetsk Regional Administration and member of the Party of Regions Anatoliy Blyzniuk, were involved in the crime, Interior Minister Arsen Avakov has said.

"The Chief Investigation Department of the Interior Ministry of Ukraine has been investigating a criminal case for several months into the fact of the illegal sale of coal extracted in the temporarily occupied territory of Luhansk and Donetsk region in 2014-2015," the minister wrote on his Facebook page on Thursday.

The minister said that coal illegally removed from the occupied territory was registered as coal belonging to private firms and which was then sold to some companies, in particular, Kramatorskteploenergo, which receives funds to generate electricity from Energomarket state enterprise.

"Then everything was simple: they received money to an account, withdrew it under fabricated documents and moved it to DPR/LPR [self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic and Luhansk People's Republic]," he said.

"Private firms are artificial firms and they were opened specially to realize the illegal scheme by members of a criminal group headed by Oleksiy Blyzniuk, son of former MP from the Party of Regions and former governor of Donetsk region. Money was taken in cash from the accounts and sent to finance terrorists. Heads have been interrogated and they gave testimonies that they were appointed directors for a bonus and they have no relation to the financial and economic operation of these companies," Avakov said.

The minister said that the Chief Investigation Department of the Interior Ministry, jointly with the Prosecutor General's Office, conducted 20 searches in Kyiv city, Zhytomyr, Poltava, Sumy and Donetsk regions.

"Around $200,000, some UAH 12 million and dozens of bank cards, dozens of mobile phones, SIM-cards of Ukrainian and Russian mobile operators, documents for leasing and keys from bank lock boxes (investigators will establish what is kept there), electronic data carriers, documents and stamps of offshore companies, over six items of fire arms and 830 cartridges were seized during the searches," he said.