What can be common between the former people's deputy of the Petro Poroshenko Bloc, armored vehicles, border guards and Dubai?
One tender in Ukraine for the supply of armored vehicles, in which all these people, things and the Arab Emirate are connected with a strong knot. Journalists have learned details of how the State Border Service purchases cars from a company, one of the co-founders of which also works for a lover of the “Russian world” and a connoisseur of the work of propaganda singer Oleg Gazmanov.
In February 2024, journalists reported that the State Border Guard Service intends to purchase 50 GYURZA armored vehicles from Ukr Armo Tech LLC. The approximate cost of one such car is 350 thousand dollars. To clarify the information, they sent a request to the border service, which led to a new investigation.
At one point, StopCor asks: “Is it true that one of the co-founders of Ukr Armo Tech, Mikhail Semiletkin, is a former worker of the Inkas company and had access to the drawings. Thus, the GYURZA armored car is a copy of another – Titan.” Border guards reported that they did not have such information. But the journalists of this investigation managed to find out what had to do with it.
So, Ukr Armo Tech LLC is a company controlled by former MP from the Petro Poroshenko Bloc, Maxim Efimov. The same one, who several years ago began to frantically buy up businesses that belonged to the family of the fugitive president Viktor Yanukovych. “Ukr Armo Tech” was created in August 2022 and among its founders Mikhail Semiletkin, who has Canadian citizenship but Ukrainian registration, is actually mentioned.
The same Mikhail Semiletkin, as of March 2023, was the production manager of the armored vehicle manufacturing company Inkas Vehicle LLC, located in Dubai. Information about this was found on the pages of the most famous media outlet in the United Arab Emirates – Gulf Time.
The founder of the Dubai company is a native of Uzbekistan, Ulugbekhon Maksumov. In one of his interviews several years ago, Maksumov said that Mikhail Semiletkin is one of the key employees of his company. At the same time, Semiletkin has been noted in Ukrainian registers as the founder of the Ukrainian company Ukr Armo Tech since its inception in August 2022. That is, for at least a certain period of time, he worked both in Ukraine and in Dubai in companies engaged in virtually identical production.
Inkas Vehicle LLC is a fairly well-known company in the Arab world for the production of armored vehicles. Registered in Dubai in 2012. The head office of the parent company Inkas Group is located in the DMCC tax-free zone in the picturesque Jumeirah lake towers area.
The production is located in the vicinity of Dubai in the Dubai investments park area.
Inkas Vehicle is a regular participant in various arms exhibitions, such as IDEX, held in the capital of the UAE, Abu Dhabi. The flagship of the Dubai company's production is the Titan-S armored car. This vehicle is built on the Toyota Landcruiser 79 chassis and, as noted in production, “is suitable for special forces, border guards and law enforcement agencies.”
In December 2022, the Titan-S armored car was seen in combat in Ukraine. Moreover, on September 4, 2023, the Ukrainian Front reported on platform X (formerly Twitter) that a new batch of Titan-S armored vehicles was heading to Ukraine. That is, it is clear that this vehicle is actively used by Ukrainian defenders on the battlefield against Russian invaders.
But the irony is that the owner of the Dubai company Inkas Vehicle LLC, Ulugbekhon Maksumov, is a big fan of “Great Russia”. For example, in 2016, when the Russian Federation had occupied Crimea for two years and was fighting in the Donbass, Maksumov organized a huge event in Dubai for Victory Day. There were St. George ribbons, and women in military uniform, and the mention of “thanks to grandfather for the victory” and, like the cherry on the cake, a regular participant in concerts in the Kremlin, singer Oleg Gazmanov.
The event was held on the territory of the Madinat Jumeirah zone, where the most expensive hotels in Dubai are located, including the Burj Al-Arab (Sail). This is one of the most favorite places of the Russian party, so concerts of all sorts of Kirkorovs and Baskovs take place there surprisingly regularly. Also, a festival of Russian music is held there every year, which attracts hundreds of tourists from Russia.
Further more. The Inkas vehicle company sponsored the National Day of the Russian Federation in Abu Dhabi, and Maksumov personally received an award of gratitude from the hands of the Russian Ambassador to the UAE.
On social networks, Ulugbekhon Maksumov likes to brag about his meetings with the Russian so-called elite: here he is with the favorite singer of Russian dictator Vladimir Putin, Mikhail Rastorguev, and here he is with the comedian-singer Alexander Reva.
Maksumov marks most of his posts with a separate tag #russian or #Russia. In March 2023, a year after Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Maksumov attended a Russian Emirates Gourmet cocktail party.
In short, the founder of Inkas vehicle clearly does not hide how close the terrorist country is to him.
At the same time, in 2021, Ulugbekhon Maksumov managed to be a member of the election commission in the presidential elections in Uzbekistan. He personally invited his compatriots to come and vote at the republic’s consulate in Dubai. Then Shavkat Mirziyoyev was elected president. He is one of the first leaders to have a telephone conversation with Vladimir Putin after Russia's attack on Ukraine. On February 25, 2022, the Kremlin reported that Mirziyoyev “sympathized with the situation that is happening in Ukraine.” On his Instagram, the owner of the Inkas Vehicle company, Ulugbekhon Maksumov, whose armored vehicles are now used by the Ukrainian military, put the tag #ourpresident under the photo of the President of Uzbekistan.
Ulugbekhon Maksumov is called the richest Uzbek in Dubai. And his team does everything possible for personal PR. Photos with expensive cars, reasonable thoughts on social networks, complimentary interviews for the press and, of course, clearing the network of critical materials. Sources in the Uzbek community in Dubai say that Maksumov actually does a lot for his own advertising. He even spent money on inviting the Crown Prince of the Emirate, Hamdan bin Mohammed Al Maktoum, to the company’s stand for a joint photo.
Why is so much attention paid to the personality of a native of Uzbekistan and Dubai in this material? The fact is that the UAE, to put it mildly, is teeming with Russians and Russian money is very valuable there. That is why the Emirates’ position regarding Russia’s war against Ukraine is rather restrained. Although the country provides Ukrainians with something like “refugee visas,” supplies our citizens with humanitarian aid and periodically takes part as an intermediary for the release of Ukrainian prisoners. That is, the UAE does not call the war a war, but they provide assistance.
It is precisely this position of “both yours and ours” that the head of the Inkas Vehicle company, Ulugbekhon Maksumov, obviously adopted: on the one hand, he supplies Ukraine with armored vehicles for protection against the occupier from the Russian Federation, and on the other hand, he is an active participant in the Russian party.
Returning to the beginning of this material, we should recall another employee of Inkas Vehicle - Mikhail Semiletkin, who simultaneously works for the Ukrainian company Ukr Armo Tech. According to Ukrainian registries, he is a citizen of Canada. By coincidence, a company with a name similar to the Dubai one, Inkas, operates in this country. It was founded by a native of Russia, who, however, did not support the authoritarian regime there. This Canadian company Inkas is also a manufacturer of armored vehicles and, moreover, it has a representative office in Ukraine and, despite the martial law, is going to expand it. The website of the Government of Ukraine also contains references to this Canadian company, with which Ukraine has established cooperation.
This whole confusing story with the two “Inkas” is explained by the courts. More than 10 years ago, Uzbek Ulugbekhon Maksumov worked in a Canadian company until he moved to Dubai and founded a new one there, with an almost identical name. Both companies accuse each other of theft of intellectual and production rights. The Canadians also claim that Maksumov stole from them a prototype of the Titan armored car, which is a main participant in arms exhibitions. The citizen of Uzbekistan claims that he has every right to use the Inkas name and logo. The courts have not yet made a final decision.
Even if the Government of Ukraine cooperates with both “Inkas”, you should still pay attention to the Dubai representative. If he professes pro-Russian narratives, is it worth buying military equipment from him? Could such rash steps lead to a critical situation? And was anyone in the Ukrainian government interested in the persons of the founders of the Ukrainian company from which they are going to purchase armored cars for border guards, for a direct connection with the controversial Dubai company.
