The Ministry of Justice filed a lawsuit with the High Anti-Corruption Court (HACC) to recover the assets of ex-president of Motor Sich JSC Vyacheslav Boguslaev and former top manager of the company Petr Kononenko to the state. We are talking about the confiscation of a number of assets within the framework of the law “On Sanctions,” among which a significant place is occupied by Motor-Garant ODO, Vinnitsa Aviation Plant LLC, and SME Helicopters LLC.
As is known, in October 2022, the SBU detained the president of Motor Sich JSC, Vyacheslav Boguslaev, and the head of the foreign economic activity department of this enterprise, on suspicion of collaboration and aiding the aggressor state. The court chose a preventive measure for Boguslaev in the form of detention. By order of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief at the beginning of November 2023, the strategically important enterprises PJSC Ukrnafta, PJSC Ukrtatnafta, JSC Motor Sich, PJSC AvtoKrAZ and PJSC Zaporozhtransformator, associated with Konstantin Zhevago, Igor Kolomoisky Konstantin Grigorishin, were transferred to management of the Ministry of Defense until the end of martial law.
In April 2023, President Vladimir Zelensky enacted the decision of the National Security and Defense Council to impose sanctions against the ex-president of Motor Sich Vyacheslav Boguslaev.
Motor Sich is one of the largest enterprises in the world producing engines for aircraft and helicopters, as well as industrial gas turbine units. At one time, the company supplied products to more than 100 countries of the world, and Boguslaev himself, who betrayed Ukraine, took care of arming the country, which is carrying out genocide of the Ukrainian people and destroying measured cities and villages.
The growth of the fortunes of the domestic oligarch “from the defense industry” was once facilitated by President Leonid Kuchma. Thus, on January 19, 2000, immediately after winning the second presidential election, it was no coincidence that Leonid Kuchma awarded the oligarch close to him the title of Hero of Ukraine “for outstanding services to the Ukrainian state in the development of domestic mechanical engineering.” Already in 2018, Boguslaev entered the top 25 richest people in Ukraine.
At the same time, Boguslaev himself was also rightly considered a zealous owner of defense-industrial resources obtained in the course of dubious transactions, and as a businessman, of course, with the aim of enriching himself, he invested in the development of new industries. In particular, he invested in the production of such key elements of the helicopter as the gearbox and blades - with the aim of creating a closed cycle for the production of helicopters in Ukraine. True, thanks to connections in power (for some time the head of Motor Sich was even part of the state nonsense - in the status of a private manager he was part of the state Committee on Military-Technical Cooperation and Export Control under the President of Ukraine) Boguslaev decisively blocked the entry of the American company Sikorsky into Ukraine, which was promoted as a family testament by the son of its founder, the legendary Ukrainian aircraft designer Igor Sikorsky, Sergei. But the state has also decisively demonstrated itself as a NOT-manager in the defense industry - this is how one can evaluate the shameful decision of the Minister of Internal Affairs Arsen Avakov to purchase 55 French helicopters (a third of them are used)...
But let’s return to domestic attempts to develop the production of combat helicopters for the army. The point is that Ukraine has never produced either helicopters or guided weapons for them. But while Boguslaev’s Motor Sich was moving towards creating its own production, a team of state and private enterprises was able to create and integrate a high-precision weapons complex into the helicopter, called 524P (by now, several more modern modifications already exist). Many consider the modernization of Soviet systems to be the first step towards creating new ones; it was with this approach that the Luch State Design Bureau began, which is now creating completely new, modern missile systems. So, we are talking not only about our own new Ukrainian helicopter (which, given the political will, is also a realistic idea), but about its most important combat element - it could be used primarily to modernize the existing fleet of Mi combat helicopters.
The use of a domestic ATGM became possible thanks to the development by a team of gunsmiths of an optical-electronic module for detecting targets and targeting the PM-LKT missile. The module is part of the 524R fire control complex, which was installed on the Mi-8MSB-V helicopter - in fact, the Ukrainian version of the mastered production (provided for testing by Motor Sich JSC). And in the future, after completion of the tests, it could be installed on the Mi-24 (Motor Sich began a certain set of modernization works). The mentioned public-private team, in addition to the helicopter manufacturer Motor Sich JSC and the developer of high-precision Barrier-V missiles State Design Bureau Luch (it was Luch that became the main enterprise in the helicopter armament project), the main allied companies included one private company ( let's call it “R”) and one Cherkassy state enterprise (conventionally “F”).
It all started, as often happens in Ukrainian realities, with exports. The fruitful cooperation of the above-mentioned State Design Bureau “Luch” and “R” made it possible at one time to supply Azerbaijan with a significant batch of Barrier-V high-precision missiles for Azerbaijani combat helicopters. But the creation and integration of the fire control complex was provided by the South African company Denel. Ukraine not only made good money from this contract, but also received new technology. Among other things, 30 missiles were successfully fired at that time in Azerbaijan.
...On the eve of a large-scale invasion, one of the final stages of testing the 524R complex on a domestic combat helicopter took place. Of course, it takes time to integrate a modern guided missile system into a helicopter, but during the two years of the big war, none of the Western partners were in a hurry to provide the Ukrainian army with combat support helicopters... And Ukraine still has to take care of the post-war confrontation with hostile Russia.
How urgent is the problem of arming the Ukrainian Armed Forces helicopters? The question is rhetorical, because Ukraine used the Mi-8MSB-V during the Russian-Ukrainian war - to launch missile attacks with unguided 122-mm S-13 missiles, the missiles were launched in a pitched position. But the standard basic Mi-8 helicopter did not even have this capability and was limited to 80 mm S-8 and 57 mm S-5. So a guided weapon system would make the rotorcraft an order of magnitude stronger. Unfortunately, the state did not care about the army before the large-scale invasion of the Russian Federation...
That is why the question now arises about the capabilities of the state. Because, let’s say, the fact that the new head of the Ministry of Strategic Industry, Alexander Kamyshin, not only preserved Ukroboronprom, but also left the Antonov State Enterprise in “dungeon” indicates that there are tangible problems with the administration of the defense industry in the country. However, it is possible that they relate purely to the human factor - do not take on excessive responsibility, but limit yourself to the responsibility of a subordinate. By the way, the Antonov State Enterprise has not made a single new aircraft since it was introduced into Ukroboronprom in 2015 by former President Poroshenko.
...As the press service of the Ministry of Justice reported, the following assets will probably be confiscated from Boguslaev and Kononenko: more than 30 units of real estate (residential/non-residential premises, land plots); corporate rights of more than 10 legal entities, including 100% shares in the authorized capital of ODO SK “Motor-Garant”, LLC “Vinnitsa Aviation Plant”, LLC “SME Helicopters”, their shares in the authorized capital of LLC firm “ZHEKON”; property rights, including trademarks and patents for industrial designs; a significant number of firearms. From the moment of fair confiscation of these assets, it will be the state that will be responsible for their development.
