The Ukrainian-Russian war made many changes in combat tactics, confirming or disproving many theoretical developments. One of them was the problem of using hemostatic agents for wounds.
High-quality turnstiles in Ukraine – what they are and how they are bought at tenders
During the fighting, it quickly became clear that Esmarch's tourniquets were torn, inconvenient, required more time to bandage, and it was almost impossible to apply a bandage with one hand without outside help. The turnstiles, thanks to the stronger material, almost do not tear, and a special tie allows you to secure it much faster than the Esmarch tourniquet, and do it yourself.
It is not surprising that the market for such hemostatic agents in Ukraine has flourished since 2022, and manufacturers of Ukrainian tourniquets have increased their income by 2-3 times during the war. This is just a case of win-win, when all parties benefit, because sales allow not only to earn money, but also to save the lives of wounded Ukrainian soldiers.
Currently, the Armed Forces of Ukraine offers three models of turnstiles:
- American CAT (Combat-Application-Tourniquet);
— Ukrainian SICH-Tourniquet;
- also Ukrainian Dnipro Gen2.
All three tourniquets perform their task of stopping blood quite well, but still the CAT, made in the USA, is considered more convenient for use. True, the price for it is “biting” - 1500 hryvnia. As it is easy to calculate, providing for almost 900 thousand people, who, according to President Vladimir Zelensky, are in the ranks of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, will cost from 1.35 billion (1 CAT per soldier) to 5.3 billion UAH (4 CAT for each limb) . Turnstiles made in Ukraine SICH and Dnipro Gen2 cost from 600 to 700 hryvnia.
Therefore, it is not surprising that most often it is domestic turnstiles that are purchased for the Ukrainian military at the expense of budgetary funds. However, tenders for the supply of APU, at least judging by publicly available data, are rare, and therefore attempts were often made to sell the turnstiles in small quantities for other budget organizations.
For example, 34 harnesses as visual aids for schools in the Shevchenko district of Kyiv, whose cost, even if American CATs are purchased, will not exceed 51,000 hryvnia. Or a certain number of tourniquets for the needs of the Criminal Executive Service of Ukraine in the general set of medicines for UAH 6.2 million.
Therefore, it is not surprising that when a more or less large tender is announced, a whole “queue” immediately appears of those wishing to participate in it. For example, 8 participants tried to sell 2800 CAT turnstiles to the Main Service Center of the Ministry of Internal Affairs at once. Ultimately, a certain private entrepreneur Vadim Bliznyuk was lucky. And why the government agency purchases foreign turnstiles and not domestic ones remains a mystery.
SICH and Dnipro – who produces turnstiles in Ukraine
One of the Ukrainian brands of Sich turnstiles is produced by Sich Ukraine LLC. The company, founded in 2014, specializes in the production of turnstiles and produced 500 thousand pieces in 2023 alone.
Its manufacturer Prostor Production Company LLC does not provide data on the number of Dnipro turnstiles produced.
However, both companies adhere to different strategies for selling their products. For example, Sich Ukraine LLC does not actually participate in tenders. According to the YouControl analytical service, since 2015 the company has sold turnstiles through auctions for only UAH 9.4 million. At the same time, most of these deliveries amounting to 6.8 million occurred in 2018.
During the Russian aggression since February 24, 2022, the largest supply of Sich amounted to 613 tourniquets for the National University of Civil Protection of Ukraine for almost 270 thousand hryvnia.
PC Prostor LLC is doing better at state tenders - UAH 20.3 million. Moreover, of this amount, UAH 15.3 million fell in 2023. And the company’s main competitor, Sich Ukraine LLC, explains this by the conditions of tenders of government agencies specifically written out for the Dnipro turnstile.
Such a statement may take place, since, for example, in 2023, the manufacturer Dnipro won 3 tenders for UAH 15.3 million. from one customer - the National Guard of Ukraine. The NSU military hospital, also known as military unit 3080 and military unit 3078, also known as a separate security and logistics battalion, purchased 30 thousand turnstiles in November-December 2023.
But all this became public property only in the spring of 2024, when the manufacturers “Sich” and “Dnipro” did not divide the truly big jackpot - 100 thousand turnstiles worth 51 million UAH.
Textbook corruption of 51 million hryvnia in the sale of turnstiles
On March 26, the already mentioned Military Hospital of NSU announced a tender for the supply of 100 thousand turnstiles, for which it was willing to pay 51 million hryvnia. Three companies took part in the tender - in addition to the already mentioned Sich Ukraine and Prostor, the third was Kyiv Commerce Group LLC, which had also previously participated in a number of tenders for the supply of turnstiles and offered the same Sich turnstile for sale.
On April 9, the tender committee of the Military Hospital made a rather unexpected decision - PC Prostor LLC won, asking 51 million UAH for its goods. At the same time, Sich Ukraine asked for 46 million UAH for its goods, and Kyiv Commerce Group LLC even 44 million UAH, which should have given priority to them when choosing the winner.
This decision caused real indignation among the owner of Sichi Ukraine, who used the company’s Facebook page to express his dissatisfaction. As the company explained, the National Guard constantly held tenders for only one manufacturer of turnstiles with technical specifications: a metal stick and a fixing clip with Velcro.
“Only one hemostatic tourniquet, originally from the Dnieper, fits into this artificially created gap. CAT-Tourniquet, for example, does not have a metal stick, while SICH-Tourniquet or SOF-T have clips with Velcro. In the past several NSU tenders, everything was the same and we did not participate. Because what’s the point?” says the Sich Ukraine page.
However, after the indignation of the community and the words of the head of the National Guard of Ukraine, Alexander Pivnenko, that there are at least 3 turnstiles on the domestic market recognized by the NSU as meeting the requirements (Dnipro, Sich and SOFTT-W), Sich Ukraine LLC decided to compete for UAH 51 million . But to no avail.
“We hoped that there would be some healthy competition, that the turnstile from the Dnieper would lower, and we would lower. But nothing came of it. The turnstile from the Dnieper has not dropped a penny. And all three rounds the participants’ prices did not change. Do you know what it looks like? What a conspiracy! When the manufacturer “resolved the issue” with interested parties and the tender was 100% made for him. Therefore, the predetermined winner of the auction does not move down. Under such conditions, the price for one turnstile can be anything: at least 1000 UAH, at least 2000. The more apartments and Mercedes that fit into the “gap,” the better for them. But Sich doesn’t work like that,” emphasized the Sich Ukraine page.
The company also emphasized that they would not give kickbacks, thus hinting at the operating principles of the company from Dnepr.
The result of the scandal that broke out was the decision of the National Guard of Ukraine to refuse the purchase due to lack of need. As Sichi Ukraine itself stated after the tender was cancelled, they were allegedly asked to “forget” about the possibility of selling their turnstiles to NSU.
Corruption or the desire to make money on turnstiles - a war for a tender from NSU
51 million hryvnia, which Sich Ukraine LLC and PC Prostor LLC tried to win between each other in April, are a significant addition to turnover for both companies. For example, “Sich” for 2023 reported an income of 185.5 million UAH, and “Prostor” - 126 million UAH, while a year earlier it was 63.5 and 55.8 million UAH, respectively.
Judging by the absence of Sich in the list of winners of state tenders, the company’s main income comes from direct sales, as well as orders from volunteers. However, government purchases from the same Prostor also account for only 12% of revenue. In any case, from 46 to 51 million UAH. for 100 thousand turnstiles for NSU, they could have seriously increased the performance of both companies, but the scandal did not allow this to be done.
Let us note that the same Military Hospital NSU “Prostor” had previously sold 5,000 of its Dnipro-2 turnstiles for UAH 2.55 million. Then, by the way, one of the tender participants was already participating in the scandalous tender “Kyiv Commerce Group”, which also offered the lowest price of all participants - UAH 2.4 million, but the winner was “Prostor”.
However, to another military unit of the National Guard of Ukraine under No. 3078, 25 thousand tourniquets were sold for 12.75 million UAH, and both tenders were held with only one participant - “Prostor”. This part of the NSU is generally notorious for its regular mentions in various dubious transactions.
For example, during the coronavirus epidemic, the support battalion (military unit 3078) ordered uniforms worth UAH 15 million from a company that could evade taxes. This military unit was also mentioned in connection with the purchase of sugar at prices 25% higher than in the Ministry of Defense. But most importantly, in June, some almost bought 30 million UAH worth of ambulances from the Fistal brothers from the “Donetsk deputy clan.”
At the same time, the customer, represented by NSU, has the right to prescribe technical conditions for the tender. For example, some people ask that tourniquets have a tape on which the time of application of the tourniquet can be scratched with a cartridge, which is extremely important for subsequent treatment. Only the Sich turnstile has such a tape.
Bidding war for turnstiles – what is known about the participants
Let us note that the commander of military unit 3078, which so often buys turnstiles from PK Prostor LLC without any auctions, is Andrei Anatolyevich Chizhenko, about whom there is very little information in the public domain.
It is known that before joining the separate NSU security and support battalion (military unit 3078), he served in a management position in the 1st operational brigade of the National Guard. There, Anatoly Chizhenko was the head of the fuel and lubricants supply service, that is, he supervised the storage and distribution of fuel, which means he is not a specialist in medicine and, most likely, does not know which turnstile is better - “Sich” or “Dnipro”. But this did not stop him from purchasing Dnipro turnstiles without an auction at all and without comparing technical characteristics.
There is evidence that he passed the test as part of the application of the law “On the Cleansing of Power” in 2018, and judging by his subsequent appointments, he successfully passed it. As for the financial condition of the unit commander, information about him as a serviceman is closed. Nevertheless, “Comments” found out that the man owns two plots of land in the Kyiv region: with an area of almost 2 hectares - for personal farming and 1059 square meters for gardening.
A little more is known about the owners and directors of Sich Ukraine LLC and PC Prostor LLC.
Thus, formally, the sole owner of Sich is a resident of the Sumy region, Nina Griva, who was previously a private entrepreneur engaged in retail trade. In October 2019, she bought the company from its founder Alexander Gadomsky. It is unknown where the private entrepreneur, who was engaged in trading on the market, got the money for this.
However, it is possible that the sale did not actually take place, because Alexander Gadomsky remained in the position of director of Sich and gives interviews on its behalf. But what is much more interesting is that it is Gadomsky who appears as a defendant in the lawsuit of PC Prostor LLC against Sich Ukraine dated July 29, 2024 for the protection of honor and business reputation. Apparently, we are talking about the same posts of Sich Ukraine LLC on its Facebook page with accusations of corruption. Probably, the initiator and author of those accusations was Alexander Gadomsky, which is very bold for a hired employee, which according to documents he is at Sich.
The owner of Prostor itself, Vladimir Zatirukha, is also not the most public person, and prefers not to give interviews. This is likely because he has more entrepreneurial experience, having started back in the 2000s at Ursa Major and Aquarelle Advertising Group. However, things are clearly going badly for these companies. For example, “Akvarel” after revenue of about 9.5 million UAH. in 2016, it essentially stopped working.
But where Vladimir Zatirukha definitely found himself was in the medical business, engaging in wholesale supplies of medicines through Dnepr TMT LLC. For 2023, the company received 123 million UAH of income in addition to the 125 million earned by Prostor. It is true that what caused such a start for the company, created in September 2022, is a mystery. As well as where did Vladimir Zatirukha actually get the money to buy “Prostor”, the owner of which, according to the clarity-project service, he became in July 2021.
All this suggests that the owner of Prostor may have some helpers and well-wishers who do not want publicity. Especially in light of the victories at NSU tenders and the loud scandal caused by this.
Turnstile wars - how Ukrainian Armed Forces soldiers suffer in pursuit of money worth tens of millions of hryvnias
However, the story with the scandal at the tender did not end and after 4 months, as they say, “came out sideways”, because, as the public organization “Center for Financial Investigations” wrote, 100 thousand turnstiles were exactly equal to the needs of NSU for 4 months.
Thus, according to the Minister of Defense of Ukraine Rustem Umerov at the 1st International Medical Congress on Military Medicine and Mental Health, the department has seriously taken up the issue of tourniquets. A special laboratory will be created to check their quality. At the same time, 500 thousand first aid kits for the Armed Forces of Ukraine have been completed, another 300 thousand first aid kits and 500 thousand turnstiles will be supplied under already concluded contracts.
But at the same time, the director of the Leleka Charitable Foundation, Irina Guk, complains that there is a shortage of turnstiles in the country. Yes, the shortage is temporary, but saving the lives of soldiers is necessary now. In the same company “Sich”, according to Guk, they actually sold tourniquets to “Leleka” on credit; according to the fund, in six months they handed over 31.5 thousand tourniquets to combat medics.
The problems with the turnstiles were indirectly confirmed by the second turnstile manufacturer Prostor, whose director Larisa Grechko said that they are ready to completely cover the needs of the Armed Forces of Ukraine for such tourniquets. Probably at an average wholesale price of about 500 hryvnia, as was the case for the canceled tender for the National Guard.
What is happening on the front line, while both companies are deciding who needs to receive government orders and tens, or even hundreds of millions of hryvnias of budget funds. The answer is obvious - they are waiting for turnstiles to arrive from anywhere in order to save the lives of our defenders.
