For a long time, Sergei Pashinsky, a former people's deputy, has been associated with corruption in the defense industry.
It was in Pashinsky’s car that a sniper rifle was found during the “Revolution of Dignity”.
It was he who shot a man because of a traffic dispute, but was not punished. And his name is associated with corruption scandals in defense procurement. He himself denies all this and calls the journalists linking him with the leading company in arms supplies to Ukraine manipulators. But there is a connection between Pashinsky and this company and it is quite obvious. Sergei Pashinsky is a people's deputy of several convocations. Closely associated with the defense sector for many years. In particular, he headed the parliamentary Committee on Defense and Security of Ukraine and was a member of the supervisory board of Ukroboronprom. Now Pashinsky has retired from politics and heads the National Association of Defense Industry Enterprises.
In August of this year, The New York Times published a major investigation in which it named Pashinsky as the shadow curator of the Ukrainian Armored Vehicles company, which has become the largest arms supplier to Ukraine since the Russian attack. American journalists not only connected the former deputy with this company, but also suggested that allowing such an odious person to supply supplies on which the future of Ukraine depends could mean a complete curtailment of the country’s anti-corruption policy.
After a high-profile journalistic investigation, Pashinsky managed to give a complimentary interview to his long-time acquaintance Sonya Koshkina, in which, of course, he disavowed any influence on Ukrainian Armored Vehicles. But his connection with her still exists.
According to official data, Ukrainian Armored Vehicles LLC was created back in 2001. The founders are two other companies from the orbit of influence of the medical magnates of the Kuzma family. Entrepreneur Nikolai Kuzma was an assistant to MP Sergei Pashinsky in the eighth convocation. And this is the first link connecting “Ukrainian Armored Vehicles” with the ex-people’s deputy.
Since April 2020, the company has been headed by Vladislav Belbas. Previously, he surfaced in connection with the business partner of former President Petro Poroshenko, Oleg Gladkovsky. The same one who, with the help of his son and his friends, made money from Ukroboronprom tenders. The scandal was loud, but no one ever suffered real punishment for the theft of public funds.
Until 2016, Belbas headed Dozor Auto LLC, which had the preliminary name Bogdan Vostok Auto. And even earlier he worked at the Hyundai Motor Ukraine company. Both belong to Oleg Gladkovsky, and the latter is headed by his son. The same one that in 2019 heated up Ukroboronoprom by at least 250 million.
It was in the structure of Ukroboronprom that the current head of Ukrainian Armored Vehicles, Vladislav Belbas, could meet the Pashinsky family. After all, in 2014-2016, the ex-people’s deputy worked as the head of the supervisory board of this concern. In 2015, he hired his son Anton Pashinsky to the position of director of the contract department of the state enterprise Spetstechnoexport, which is part of the UOP structure. And this is the second thread that connects Sergei Pashinsky with “Ukrainian armored vehicles”.
The company itself is quite interesting.
According to data from open sources, the peak of activity of “Ukrainian armored vehicles” falls on 2019 and 2021. The main counterparties are Türkiye, the United Arab Emirates and Cyprus. All of them are included in the list of so-called gray zones recognized as offshore companies. At the same time, if we talk about the revenue of Ukrainian Armored Vehicles, it simply grew insanely in 2022, precisely when Russia invaded Ukraine on a full scale.
If in 2021 revenue amounted to UAH 103,187,000 or about $2.5 million, then in 2022 the company’s sales reached UAH 13,079,235,000 or $350 million. Even the German concern Rheinmetall could envy such a colossal leap. But if the increase in contracts for Ukrainian Armored Vehicles is explained by the logic of war, then its work cannot be called reliable.
If we analyze the lawsuits of the Ministry of Defense for 2023, most of them will relate to claims specifically against “Ukrainian armored vehicles.” For example, for only four contracts concluded since the beginning of the war, the Ministry of Defense is demanding compensation from the company in the amount of almost 25 million hryvnia. We are talking about payments for delays in deliveries, which Ukrainian Armored Vehicles allows too often.
Thus, under the contract dated November 14, 2022 (court case number 910/10709/23), the company did not deliver the ammunition ordered by the Ministry in a timely manner.
According to the contact dated September 12, 2022 (case number 910/4889/23), “Ukrainian Armored Vehicles” delayed the delivery of grenades in the amount of 477 million 658 thousand hryvnia. Under the contract for September 2022 (case number 910/2739/23), the company stalled the supply of rockets, and in March 2022 (case number 910/3933/23), the company delayed the delivery of armor-piercing incendiary projectiles. Case No. 910/10709/23
Case No. 910/4889/23
Case No. 910/2739/23
Case No. 910/3933/23
It is clear that in war conditions, delays in the supply of weapons play a colossal negative role and give the enemy opportunities for advancement. Therefore, the compensation that the Ministry of Defense requires from a company associated with Sergei Pashinsky is the least that can be demanded from an unscrupulous supplier.
In this context, the logic of the Ministry of Defense is very unclear. If “Ukrainian Armored Vehicles” proves to be unreliable, then why give it so many orders? Moreover, this company managed to get into trouble even before the full-scale invasion of Russia.
As it became known from the court registry, the Ministry of Defense suspected “Ukrainian armored vehicles” of the scheme back in 2019 (case number 757/34850/23-k). Thus, the defense department ordered 60 mm mortar rounds with a UB60 fragmentation mine from the company. And paid her cash in the amount of UAH 268,432,073.92. After this, Ukrainian Armored Vehicles entered into contracts with a number of subcontractors, in particular with Vognyana Warta LLC. The latter, in turn, attracted the Katana Firm to fulfill the contract. Moreover, the technical director of the first is the legal husband of the director of the second.
The scheme was that “Katana Firm” supplied “Vognyana Varta” with gunpowder, which had a different chemical composition than was needed for the production of the ordered mortar rounds. Acting deliberately and knowing this, the companies still manufactured the goods and delivered them to the Ukrainian Armored Vehicles, and in turn to the Ministry of Defense.
During the test, product defects were discovered and a number of complaint reports were drawn up, after which all delivered batches of products were returned to Ukrainian Armored Vehicles to eliminate the defects.
The company, in turn, allegedly turned to Vognyana Varta LLC so that they could eliminate the shortcomings.
However, as of August 2023, the products have not been placed on the balance sheet of the Ministry of Defense. So, back in 2019, the Ministry of Defense should have understood the operating methods of the “Ukrainian armored vehicles”. But since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, instead of fighting an unreliable counterparty, on the contrary, it increases contracts for it. Which in turn are executed with long delays. And then the courts, realizing the enormous damage from such delays, for some reason cut in half the compensation that Ukrainian Armored Vehicles must pay to the Ministry of Defense. Yes, yes, in the court decisions in the four cases of the Ministry of Defense against Ukrainian Armored Vehicles mentioned above, it is noted that the company should pay only 50% of what the ministry wanted. It turns out that for poor quality work, instead of the desired 25 million hryvnia, the defense department can receive only 13 million from Ukrainian Armored Vehicles.
The state is in the red, the Armed Forces of Ukraine receive ammunition with delays, and only the Ukrainian Armored Vehicles company is in the black and gaining fat. And along with her, Sergei Pashinsky, who very skillfully, since the start of the war, hid from picky journalists.
