They profited from the war. In Poltava, officials will go on trial for military purchases

Perhaps the most expensive military equipment at the front is what the Poltava City Council hands over to the soldiers. During the war, it seems he has not yet made a single purchase without including a corruption component in it.

Violations during various City Council tenders are systematically recorded by specialists of the OBA “Transparency and Accountability” working group, giving recommendations on how to avoid violations. Law enforcement agencies also became interested in the officials’ schemes.

On August 6, employees of the Security Service of Ukraine and the Bureau of Economic Security conducted searches in the offices of officials of the Poltava City Council. According to preliminary data from the investigation, with only one purchase, 170 drones of three types were overpaid, or rather, damage to the local budget was caused by UAH 5.3 million.

Suspicions of embezzlement of budget funds have been brought against the former head of the department for civil protection and defense work (CP and OR) Sergei Siritsa, who held the position from August 2022 to December 2023, and his subordinate, chief specialist.

Criminal proceedings have been opened under the article of the Criminal Code of Ukraine “Embezzlement on an especially large scale.” The maximum penalty provided for in this article is 12 years in prison.

Prozorro is easy to deceive...

The dubious procedure for the public procurement of three types of quadcopters (DJI Mavic 3 Fly More Combo, DJI Mavic 3T and EVO MAX 4T Protect) was carried out on December 8 last year. Three weeks after this, the executive committee agreed on the transfer of various equipment for military units in the amount of UAH 95.6 million. The most expensive on the list was the batch of those same 170 drones. Its total cost reached 38.9 million UAH.

Probably, the public would not have known about this if the “Poltava Resistance” military assistance program had been kept secret, as under the notorious corrupt mayor Alexander Mamai. But a deputy from the Servant of the People, Ekaterina Yamshchikova, elected a year ago to the position of secretary of the city council and acting as the city mayor, initiated the re-approval of the program without the stamp “for official use.” This made it possible to return all purchases of the defense department to the Prozorro system, so everyone can see what, for how much and from whom government agencies buy.

It is no secret that corrupt officials have long learned to bypass the electronic public procurement system in order to benefit. There are many ways to deceive Prozorro, but this is not about that now. Now there is a war, and everyone in his place must do everything in his power for the sake of victory. Unfortunately, theft and enrichment during the war have become almost the norm for officials.

Responsible for holding tenders in the department for civil protection and OR issues of the Poltava City Executive Committee, Maxim Panasenko, at a meeting of the “Transparency and Accountability” group, which immediately suspected a corruption component in the purchase of drones, without blinking an eye, stated that there is no state regulation of prices for military devices, prices dictated by an ever-growing market, so the purchase was expensive, but all standards were met, they say. The estimated cost of the procurement item was calculated based on screenshots taken on December 7, 2023.

But at the same time, the expected cost of purchases was overestimated by UAH 1.4 million, and the only contractor that was tested and loved by city officials, the limited liability company ZED-Mobile, headed by young entrepreneur Yuriy Konovalchuk, participated in the tender.

They sold Maviki at exorbitant prices

It is appropriate to make some comparisons here. The most popular DJI Mavic 3T drones were sold by ZED-Mobile to the City Council at a price of 304,511 hryvnia per piece (80 pieces = 24,360,862 UAH), while the charitable foundation of Sergei Pritula bought hundreds of thousands of such “Mavics” in 2023 128-174 thousand hryvnia. At the same time, the price of drones gradually decreased. In Pritula’s reporting you can find third “Mavics” even for 139-158 thousand UAH.

Large volunteer foundations bought DJI Mavic 3 Fly More Combo drones for 80-90 thousand UAH, and ZED-Mobile sold them to the Poltava City Council for 136,160 UAH apiece (80 pieces = 10,892,786 UAH).

The lowest offer for the Autel Evo Max 4T PROTECT+ quadcopter on Prozorro is 245 thousand UAH, the highest is 317-319 thousand. And ZED-Mobile had 361,151 UAH. Accordingly, 10 pieces cost the City Council 3,611,514 UAH.

ZED-Mobile LLC bought all these quadcopters from one supplier - Kyiv Komel LLC, which imports goods from Poland, Turkey and China. The company's profit was about 100 thousand hryvnia on one Mavic 3T and 61 thousand on Autel. At the same time, in the documents, ZED-Mobile noted other, improved modifications, although it did not improve the drones in any way. And he avoided taxes too!

Due to violations of the legislation on the application of VAT tax benefits for the supply of defense goods (drones, optical devices), the State Tax Service of the region in mid-February 2024 fined ZED-Mobile LLC almost 46 million UAH. But just two months later, the judge of the Oktyabrsky District Court of Poltava, Vitaly Mikitenko, closed the proceedings to bring the ex-director of ZED-Mobile LLC, Yuriy Konovalchuk, to justice for financial violations. Because I didn’t find... evidence of an administrative violation.

And yet the guilty cannot avoid punishment. On the fact of possible misappropriation, embezzlement of property or taking possession of it through abuse of official position when purchasing quadcopters at prices exceeding market prices, the regional prosecutor's office entered information into the ERDR. The investigation of the case was carried out by specialists from the Main Directorate of the National Police in the Poltava region. The Kiev District Court of Poltava gave permission for temporary access and seizure of original documents related to the purchase of 170 drones. Detectives from the Bureau of Economic Security and the SBU conducted searches, seized documents, and now it’s up to the court.

It is hoped that investigators will find out why the city council, since the beginning of a full-scale war, chose ZED-Mobile as the only supplier of drones and military equipment.

Their collaboration first became known two years ago. In July 2022, the City Council purchased radios from ZED-Mobile with an overpayment of 40 percent of the market price. Journalists from the local online publication “Poltavashchyna” were the first to draw attention to this. It is noteworthy that after criticism in “Poltava region,” the then city leadership, led by Alexander Mamai, almost immediately closed defense procurement from the community, hiding behind “military secrets.”

A thief received an order for 7 million

“The story with drones is the loudest, but not the only dubious purchase that the defense department has implemented,” says the publication’s correspondent Nikolai Lysogor. — During two and a half years of a full-scale war, Poltava provided the Defense Forces with assistance worth hundreds of millions of hryvnia, and a significant part was classified as “for official use.” Although in fact the help was not secret - the deputies willingly took pictures with gifts and published relevant information on social networks. Electronic warfare equipment, uniforms, gliders, computers, chest cameras, and a bus were purchased through ZED-Mobile. In practice, the “DSP” stamp was used to hide prices and purchase equipment without reporting to Prozorro.

From public information it is known that the ZED-Mobile company was founded in May 2017 by Olga Lysenko and Yuri Konovalchuk. According to the Prozorro public procurement analysis system, during 2017-2022 the company completed government orders worth UAH 5 million without the “DSP” stamp. But last year this amount increased sharply to 105 million. The vast majority of orders came from the defense department of the Poltava City Council.

By the way, in order to avoid close attention from the media and law enforcement, Konovalchuk had to use a number of LLCs and individual entrepreneurs to sell to the City Council. After the scandal with drones, ZED-Mobile LLC urgently changed its owner (Olga Lysenko became) and its legal address, “relocating” from Poltava to Karlovka near the regional center.

Covering their tracks, accomplices of the city leadership are getting rid of their companies, through which they organized the supply of drones and other equipment for the military at inflated prices. Unfortunately, this can complicate the investigation. And what’s worse is that only the shell companies change, but the transactions continue because their beneficiaries remain the same.

After searches in the city council and the announcement of suspicions, the editorial board of “Poltava region” followed the fate of fly-by-night companies from which the city had been buying equipment for the military over the past year. And I discovered that from the beginning of this year, in order to divert attention from his main company, Yuri Konovalchuk began entering tenders through shell companies. One of them, “Cyberf,” was registered as the clerk of the Shevchenko TEC at the last local elections. Having supplied the city with equipment worth UAH 20 million, the company was re-registered to another person. However, her contacts lead to Konovalchuk’s first company, ZED-Mobile.

Also, at the beginning of 2024, the only participant in the tender announced by the Poltava City Council for thermal imagers and night vision devices for the military worth almost 7 million UAH was Amayday Biz LLC, which in April last year was registered as a resident of Kyiv, and in August it was re-registered as a paramedic Poltavsky regional center for emergency medical care. This was the only contract of the company, which was allegedly owned by the paramedic. By the way, an administrative protocol was drawn up against him several years ago for... stealing two bottles of beer in a supermarket. It is not surprising that already this July the LLC was renamed “Plastics-Forms”, and changed its owner and legal address.

“Such urgent sales of companies after receiving funds from the budget indicate the desire of the real or fictitious owner of the enterprise to complicate the conduct of investigative actions in order to avoid criminal liability for possible collusion with top officials of Poltava and systematic misappropriation of budget funds.

Therefore, the investigation of the BEB and the SBU can be called truly complete when both the sellers of drones and ammunition, as well as the deputies who “protected” this entire process, also receive suspicion,” “Poltavashchyna” summarizes.

PS Since the beginning of this year, Alexander Sorokovy, a former fighter of the “Odin” assault company, has been appointed head of the defense department. And the secretary of the City Council, Ekaterina Yamshchikova, herself served in 2022-2023 as a medic of the 116th separate military defense brigade, acting as the head of the medical service for the evacuation of the wounded as part of the Yetty Medics unit. It’s a pity that blatant frauds are happening behind the backs of people with combat experience, and they, in fact, turned out to be silent accomplices in robbing their combat brothers-in-arms.