While ordinary people are paying 3-5 hryvnia for drones for the Armed Forces of Ukraine, a whole rich class has formed in Ukraine, which has gotten rich from the war. Their excess profits are calculated not even in millions, but in hundreds of millions of dollars.
One of the brightest representatives of this class is Sergei Pashinsky, who from the coordinator of protests at Euromaidan in 2013-2014 has today turned into one of the largest private arms suppliers and, they say, has even become a monopolist on the market for certain weapons.
In August 2023, the American edition of the New York Times devoted an entire journalistic investigation to Pashinsky’s arms business. The newspaper claimed that the company Ukrainian Armored Technology, associated with the politician, achieved the highest turnover in its entire history in 2022 – $350 million. While a year before the war they were at the level of 2.8 million rubles.
According to the American publication, UAT is engaged in the resale of weapons. Since the start of the war in February 2022, the firm has resold grenades, artillery shells and missiles through a trans-European network of intermediaries. As a result, the prices at which weapons were purchased by the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense grew to the maximum. Since most of the money for weapons for the Ukrainian Armed Forces came from Western aid, because of speculators like Pashinsky, the NYT wrote, the American and British governments decided to buy ammunition for Ukraine rather than transfer money for it.
However, American journalists only briefly touched upon extremely important questions: how did Sergei Pashinsky manage to earn “starting capital” in order to become a “weapons baron” in Ukraine? Who helped him in this business? What specific schemes were involved in the transactions? And why are criminal proceedings being opened against Pashinsky and his accomplices now?
Catch a wave
Sergei Pashinsky is involved in many scandals and criminal cases. His Ukrainian Wikipedia page has been significantly cleared of these stories. But even what remains allows us to understand how the politician entered the arms market.
In 2014, with the beginning of the annexation of Crimea and unrest in the east of the country, the leaders of the Headquarters of National Resistance, which coordinated actions during the Euromaidan, went from spontaneous leaders to leaders of the state. Pashinsky was initially deputy head of the ShNS. When Alexander Turchynov was appointed acting president by a resolution of the Verkhovna Rada, Pashinsky became the head of his presidential administration. He held this position until June 10, 2014.
“Wikipedia” states: “By its own admission, the main task of the new government position was the formation of government bodies in the conditions of the post-revolutionary collapse of state institutions.” And first on Pashinsky’s list of interests is the “army.” And then it is clarified that it was in this area that he was primarily interested: the organization and control of military aid supplies, the production of military-industrial complex, and the establishment of international military-technical cooperation. That is, what the New York Times will ironically write about: “Buys guns, and then sells them, then buys them again and sells them again.” But for this, Pashinsky needed a lot of money, which was found in the same 2014.
Loot what's confiscated
The scandalous criminal story about the sale of “Kurchenko’s gasoline” by businessmen close to Sergei Pashinsky is almost 10 years old. A lot has been written about him, and journalistic investigations were carried out back in 2015, when Pashinsky was “on horseback.” But it is still relevant for several reasons.
Firstly, it makes it possible to track how Pashinsky was, first in the position of acting. Head of the Presidential Administration, and then Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on National Security and Defense, built schemes for capitalizing the arms business.
Secondly, it allows you to learn about those people who over the years helped Pashinsky become who he is today.
Thirdly, he understands why in 2022 the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine resumed criminal proceedings, and the State Audit Service conducted an audit of the companies involved in this scheme. And why the story of the theft of petroleum products brought Pashinsky and his accomplices to the tsugunder.
In short, this is the content of the story.
During 2013-2014, oligarch Sergei Kurchenko, close to the Yanukovych family, imported petroleum products to Ukraine, allegedly for their further transit. In fact, they were sold here without paying due taxes, fees and charges.
After Kurchenko fled to the Russian Federation, the state seized 85 thousand tons of these oil products (gasoline and diesel fuel). At that time, their volume was estimated at UAH 800 million. Despite the provisions of government decree No. 1104 of November 19, 2012, which clearly defines the procedure for storing material evidence, they decided to sell the seized oil products. And, as the investigation and journalists later established, the sale of “Kurchenko’s gasoline” was carried out by people from “Pashinsky’s orbit.”
In particular, on June 4, 2014, Vladimir Gavrilov became the head of the State Enterprise “Ukrtransnefteprodukt” (that is, back when Sergei Pashinsky headed the presidential administration). He was appointed to the position by the director of the responsible department of the Ministry of Energy, Andrey Boychuk, who worked as a repair engineer at the State Enterprise Ukrtransgaz, and during the Euromaidan he became one of the centurions of the Maidan Self-Defense. Boychuk received a place in the ministry under the “Pashinsky quota,” which he confirmed in one of his interviews.
It was through the State Enterprise “Ukrtransnefteprodukt” that confiscated petroleum products were sold, the acceptance and transfer certificates of which were signed by the general director Vladimir Gavrilov, as well as the representative of the state enterprise Igor Brotsky. Ukrtransnefteprodukt entered into agreements with four buyers: Ukroylproduct LLC, VLAST-NK LLC, the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine and Experimental Research and Production Center FOBOS LLC.
The leading company in this scheme was Ukroylproduct LLC, which was part of the Factor group of businessman Sergei Tishchenko, a longtime friend of Pashinsky and the actual owner of Fortuna Bank (another institution that played an important role in the deal with Kurchenko’s oil products).
Further events developed as in an illusionist theater. Petroleum products were sold at a reduced price, and 14 tons were generally registered as a “non-commercial yellow substance”, written off and sold. At the same time, the company that bought the fuel then sold it at market prices. In 2017, the court found that this caused damage to the state in the amount of UAH 293 million (at the then exchange rate - more than $10 million).
The trick with the disappearance of money from the sale of petroleum products was no less spectacular. Ukrtransnefteprodukt spent funds from sales - about 344 million UAH - on its own activities. Another 102 million UAH were deposited into the accounts of the state enterprise at Tishchenko’s Fortuna Bank. At the same time, UAH 396 million was never paid by the buyer of the fuel (Ukroylproduct LLC), because under the terms of the contract he received a two-year deferred payment.
In 2015, the Security Service opened criminal proceedings into the alleged theft of petroleum products. When there was a smell of burning, Sergei Pashinsky turned to President Petro Poroshenko with a cynical initiative to transfer free of charge all seized oil products to Kurchenko for the needs of the Ministry of Defense.
But it was only possible to return the hole from the steering wheel. In 2017, Fortuna Bank was declared insolvent; 2019 bankruptcy proceedings were opened at the State Enterprise “Ukrtransnefteprodukt”; In 2021, the Economic Court of Kyiv declared Ukroylproduct LLC bankrupt and opened a liquidation procedure.
On February 12, 2024, the SBU, NABU and SAP finally brought the case of “Kurchenko’s gasoline” to its logical conclusion. Pashinsky, Tishchenko and four other defendants in this criminal proceeding were charged with misappropriation of confiscated oil products, which overall caused damage to the state amounting to almost 1 billion UAH!
According to sources in law enforcement agencies, law enforcement officers are trying not only to restore the picture of those events and bring to justice the participants in this scheme. The main goal is to shake up the entire financial empire of Sergei Pashinsky, which he built over ten years thanks to such transactions.
Beloved woman of manager Gavrilov
It seemed that the general director of the state enterprise “Ukrtransnefteprodukt” Vladimir Gavrilov, after the opening of criminal proceedings by the SBU and the scandal with oil products back in 2015, should disappear from view. But no, he is transferred to another front of work - to an area that becomes the main area of interest of Sergei Pashinsky: defense. In 2018, Gavrilov heads the Kiev Mayak plant, which is part of the Ukroboronprom state concern.
And almost immediately the enterprise ends up in the criminal chronicle. In 2018, law enforcement officers suspected officials of Mayak Plant PJSC of abusing their official position when receiving mortar sights from Radioapteka LLC without concluding an agreement, which caused damage to the state in the amount of UAH 2.72 million. And in 2019, the SBU detained the former deputy director of the plant for accepting a bribe for assistance in the sale of the enterprise’s property at a reduced price.
A meticulous study by journalists of the biography of Vladimir Gavrilov revealed the secret of the latter’s buoyancy. In 2015-2019, the State Audit Service of Ukraine was headed by his wife, Lydia Gavrilova. She was appointed to the position under the quota of the Popular Front party, one of the co-founders of which was Pashinsky.
The main task of SASU is the financial audit of enterprises, identifying violations and abuses of public funds. It is clear that Pashinsky was interested in such a “quota” and conducting a “correct audit”, given his interest in the defense industry, which belongs to the sphere of national security.
How conscientious Gavrilova was in her work can be concluded from the NABU criminal proceedings opened in 2017. She was charged with illegal enrichment and acquisition of assets in the amount of UAH 9.92 million in 2015-2016, which surprisingly coincided with the sale of “Kurchenko’s gasoline” by her husband, as well as Pashinsky’s entry into the arms business.
"Ukrainian (without) armored vehicles"
Former Deputy Prosecutor General David Sakvarelidze has no doubt that Pashinsky invested part of the money from the sale of “Kurchenko’s oil products” in a “defense startup.” According to him, during the presidency of Petro Poroshenko, business in the defense industry was divided between several influential politicians and businessmen, among whom was Pashinsky.
“They had different agreements. They met with Igor Kononenko (former first deputy chairman of the BPP faction in the Verkhovna Rada - ed.) and constantly resolved some issues related to business and the defense industry. This is a big “agreement”, and even small children know about it,” noted David Sakvarelidze.
In 2019, General Director of Ukroboronprom Aivaras Abromavicius directly named Sergei Pashinsky as a shadow beneficiary of the Ukrainian Armored Vehicles company, which ousted Ukroboronprom weapons from the state defense order when purchasing certain types of weapons. Abromavicius was outraged not only by the fact that Pashinsky’s private company “threw a spoke in the wheels” of the state concern, but also by the fact that Pashinsky actually combined the powers of a people’s deputy with business. And this is a gross violation of the law.
The fact that Pashinsky is the owner of the Ukrainian armored vehicles was confirmed at the trial by representatives of the SAP and NABU. “Pashinsky has long been the actual owner and beneficiary of a significant number of legal entities officially registered in the name of persons controlled by him,” the prosecutor said. The prosecution noted that Ukrainian Armored Vehicles also belongs to such companies, citing the testimony of the former head of the supervisory board of Ukrainian Armored Vehicles, Andrey Senchenko.
By the way, it must be said that as long as Sergei Pashinsky exercised parliamentary control over the defense industry, scandals in the media with his mention in the “defense industry” did not stop.
In March 2018, Novoye Vremya journalists conducted a large-scale investigation and found out that the people’s deputy, using his connections and official powers, organized several frauds at once. Pashinsky, because of scam companies, bought old infantry fighting vehicles, and then resold them to the Ukrainian army for 7 times more expensive. Similar “schemes” concerned the purchase of detonators. In addition, according to journalists, financial transactions took place through a Latvian bank, previously accused by the American authorities of money laundering. Pashinsky demanded a refutation of the facts of his involvement in corrupt deals in the defense sector, calling it a “Kremlin hybrid war” against him. But the court sided with the journalists.
In 2019, Ukrainian Armored Vehicles LLC received UAH 200 million to fulfill a secret agreement with the Ministry of Defense as part of a state defense order for the supply (not production) of Varta armored vehicles. At that time, Ukrainian Armored Vehicles was a little-known private company, which until 2015 was called Ukrglavpak LLC and specialized in the production of plastic containers. The director of the company, Alexander Kuzma, was a relative of Nikolai Kuzma, well-known in the pharmaceutical business, who in 2014 was a voluntary assistant to Sergei Pashinsky.
In October 2019, the Prosecutor General's Office registered criminal proceedings regarding the theft by former officials, together with officials of defense enterprises, of budgetary funds during the execution of a state defense order for the production of 152 mm ammunition for the Hyacinth artillery system. As experts found out, the right to supply shells for “Hyacinths” was given to the private company Rubin 2017 LLC, created in 2017 and which no one had heard of in the arms market before. Among the founders of Rubin was Pashinsky's Ukrainian Armored Vehicles LLC.
Sources in law enforcement agencies, speaking on the condition of anonymity, reported that after the full-scale invasion of Putin’s troops in Ukraine, “Ukrainian Armored Vehicles” became one of the main contractors of the Ministry of Defense. Indeed, as the authors of the New York Times noted, in the first months of the great war, the Ukrainian authorities were forced to quickly and at any cost resolve issues with the supply of weapons for the army. We were ready to seek help even from the devil, who turned out to be Sergei Pashinsky.
But today, with the diversification of arms suppliers, serious questions have arisen regarding the 2022 contracts. In particular, under agreements with Ukrainian Armored Vehicles.
As it turned out, Pashinsky’s company received 100% advance payment from the Ministry of Defense for all military contracts. According to defense business sources, under the terms of the contracts, Ukrainian Armored Vehicles was indeed supposed to supply “dual-use goods” (weapons) in the first months of a full-scale invasion. However, most of these contracts were partially fulfilled only a year later, and for some, litigation is still ongoing.
In addition, Korotko’s investigation alleges that Pashinsky was involved in increasing artificial markups in the defense sector when purchasing weapons. This is evidenced by the recordings of his conversations with his inner circle released in the media, where he recommended doubling the prices of weapons.
At the same time, the MP tried to obstruct inspections of defense enterprises. For example, he resisted an audit by the State Audit Service of KB Luch, which Pashinsky also influences. According to media reports, he actually did everything to prevent the audit of the enterprise from taking place. It is assumed that this was done to “hide the cosmic markups.”
That is, the media story about “Pashinsky saved Kyiv from the Russian invasion”, which is being spread by various bloggers close to the exnarder’s deputy, is a myth and an outright lie. Because now the state is going to begin the process of collecting money for unfulfilled contracts through the courts, sources say.
What will happen next?
Pashinsky doesn’t know how to react to developments. While, through close media, he is fighting with those who brought his arms deals out of the shadows (for example, he organized information campaigns against the head of the State Audit Service, Alla Basalaeva). One of the options to “come out at least a little unscathed” is the bankruptcy of Ukrainian Armored Vehicles. And then the state will never get its money back (tested in practice with Kurchenko’s oil products).
Although the court sent Sergei Pashinsky to a pre-trial detention center, the very next day, February 27, six enterprises - members of the National Association of Defense Industry Enterprises NAUDI (headed by the deputy) - paid UAH 272.5 million in bail for him.
This is evidence that Pashinsky has money, so for now he will remain free. But for how long? He understands perfectly well that these are not the semi-peaceful years of 2015 or 2019, when, in principle, everyone tried to come to an agreement with everyone.
And after the publication of recordings of Pashinsky’s conversations (by the way, law enforcement officers confirm their authenticity), the number of his sympathizers has decreased significantly and the number of enemies has increased. Especially among the 3rd assault brigade of “Azov”, which the new Ukrainian narcissist cursed and carelessly sent to hell. For there is nothing worse than insulting the honor of military officers.
