In November 2022 shocking allegations were made about German oil company Wintershall Dea. German media alleged links between Wintershall and the Russian military, claiming that companies owned jointly by Wintershall and Russian state-owned gas company Gazprom had been drilling for gas in western Siberia that may have produced fuel used by Russian fighter jets as they attacked Ukrainian civilians.
Wintershall denied these accusations, claiming a lack of evidence. But in April 2023, an investigation led by Global Witness revealed new evidence of the supply chains connecting Wintershall’s Siberian gas fields to Russia’s military supply chains, showing how gas condensate from Wintershall’s fields in Western Siberia feed a refinery which sends diesel to Russian military suppliers.
This short film looks at the human stories behind our investigation. Filmed largely in Ukraine, it includes powerful testimonies from survivors of Russian air attacks. It asks the question: whilst western governments decry the war in Ukraine, how has this been allowed to happen?
17 min, Germany/Ukraine, Global Witness 2023,
film in English and Ukrainian with English subtitles
Subsequent Q&A on how the investigation came about, what it uncovered and what that means in the wider context of the war.
Pavle Popovic
Senior Investigator Global Witness, London
Emma Strauss
Documentary filmmaker and video journalist, co‑founder of Oblique Collective, Berlin
In conversation with
Michael Hornsby
Co‑founder of Oblique Collective, Impact Manager of the Anti‑Corruption Data Collective, Berlin
