Accusations by SPIEGEL and ZDF

The ZDF television magazine frontal and the German news magazine Der Spiegel have now repeated their known accusations (DER SPIEGEL issue 45/2022) against Wintershall Dea from last year. This time, they are using the missile strike on an apartment block in the Ukrainian city of Dnipro on 14 January with at least 45 dead as an opportunity to accuse Wintershall Dea of allegedly being involved. Both media base their claim on the results of their own research – but once again fail to provide any evidence to support these serious accusations.

This time, the TV report from ZDF television magazine frontal and the article from Spiegel Online allege a direct link between production by the joint venture in Western Siberia and the military airport from which fighter jets flew the attack in violation of international law on an apartment block in the Ukrainian city of Dnipro on 14 January. The air force base is said to have been receiving kerosene since the war began from three refineries which, in turn, processed gas condensate as a raw material. frontal reported that “once again, Wintershall [Dea] and Gazprom, which have gas condensate produced in the Urengoy region,” stood at the start of the chain. The new publications do not, however, provide any concrete evidence either to support the suggested links between Wintershall Dea and the Russian military.

Roderich Kiesewetter, foreign affairs politician from the CDU party, speaks in the frontal TV report. He claims that Wintershall Dea had “already been involved in financing the Russian war chest since 2014, especially in producing kerosene for Russian fighter jets and Russian military weapons.” The accusation of Wintershall Dea producing fuel for the Russian war machinery is false. This has now been pointed out to the member of the Bundestag in a letter.

Back in November 2022, Mario Mehren had already publicly rejected these accusations as dishonest and contrived. The company is currently reviewing what steps to take to protect itself against these continuing false claims and allegations.

“The impression that is quite obviously meant to be deliberately created here by both media, namely that Wintershall Dea is allegedly involved in the war, is irresponsible and quite simply false,” states a company spokesman: “Nor do these false claims become more correct by being constantly repeated.”