





Purchases of the Ministry of Defense: “kickbacks” and fake bulletproof vests
At the beginning of a full-scale invasion, the authorities in Kyiv faced an unexpected problem. There was not a single importer of weapons in the country, because for all the years of independence, Ukraine has only exported weapons. A full-scale war required quick decisions, writes UP.
True, haste often gave a chance for outright adventurers to enrich themselves at the expense of the war.
This was the case in the so-called Turkish body armor case. About trying a few hustlers profit on army supplies first became known in August last year. But only now it was possible to find out the details of this case, establish a circle of unexpected defendants and trace the fate of the millions of hryvnia seized during the searches.
As interlocutors in power and in the arms market told the UP, in the spring of 2022, the government literally attracted all participants in the domestic arms market in order to bring in the maximum possible ammunition, weapons, ammunition, etc. from outside.
One of the market participants explained that “Zelensky gave the command: it doesn’t matter where and how to buy it, but the country needs all possible weapons.”
According to this strategy, the Ministry of Defense, after verification, issued official “confidential” letters to companies and individuals involved in the supply of weapons.
To understand how wide this circle of people is, one can recall the stories that such “official representatives” of the MOU even competed with each other, trying to buy affordable ammunition and equipment from European and other suppliers.
Back in the spring of 2022, the UE heard a lot of such stories both from officials and from the suppliers themselves.
It came to egregious situations when several different suppliers from Ukraine competed with each other and so inflated the price of weapons. And even the fact that the partner governments were ready to supply our country simply as gratuitous aid.
In an interview with the UP, Minister of Defense Alexei Reznikov told not one such story. After such situations, the head of the Ministry of Defense gathered importers, handed out scolding, but the situations did not go down the drain.
“The arms market is very, shall we say, specific. There is little room for human ideals here. Therefore, it is not surprising that many outright adventurers have tried to turn our misfortune into their own opportunity. But there are no other people in this market. Therefore, every time you need to check and control everything separately. Otherwise, they simply would not have brought anything.”, — explained in a conversation with the UP one of the tops of the current government in the summer of 2022.
Actually, one of these situations with “official representatives” who turned out to be fraudsters will be discussed further.
This is a story about a contract for 16 million dollars, where a Turkish supplier of bulletproof vests suddenly had Ukrainian “contractors” who almost heated the state and the army for almost 600 thousand dollars.
And also about a former official of the Ministry of Defense, from whom millions of hryvnias and hundreds of thousands in foreign currency are suddenly confiscated, and then just as unexpectedly returned.
Procurements of the Ministry of Defense: The history of Turkish armor, or Not thieves, but subcontractors
March 8, in the midst of the fighting near Kyiv, two citizens of Ukraine arrived in Turkey. There they negotiated the supply of body armor for the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
These men – entrepreneurs Dmitry Buryak and Konstantin Krivopust – did not have government positions, but were not ordinary volunteers either. They showed their interlocutors a letter from the Minister of Defense of Ukraine Oleksiy Reznikov, signed just a few days before the negotiations. The document authorized them to represent the MOU in the procurement of goods for the troops.
According to the materials of the criminal case, in Turkey, Buryak and Krivopust met with the leadership of the local company FarmTR Gida Tarim and offered to participate in government contracts.
The Turks agreed, and already on March 14 they signed an agreement with the Ministry of Defense for the supply of 30,000 body armor of the 4th protection class. The contract value is 16.655 million euros, or 542.755 million hryvnias at the then exchange rate of the NBU.
The price of each body armor was 552.7 euros (18,000 hryvnias). Whether it is fair depends on the materials used. UE such details are unknown. In January 2023, this amount will be increased for armor made of metal, but not ceramic.
However, at the beginning of the big war, the market was devastated, demand was many times greater than supply. According to UP among armor manufacturers, then they were sold for 250 and 500, and even 1000 dollars.
On the first of April, 100% of the prepayment came to the account of the Turks at once. After that, the “negotiators” Buryak and Krivopust again came to the Turkish supplier. According to investigators, they demanded to give them part of the money.
And the Turks were subjected to these requirements. Despite the fact that the word “kickback” suggests itself here, officially it was a subcontracting agreement. Ukrainian entrepreneurs allegedly promised the Turks to supply a part – a thousand broniks – instead of them.
The subcontractor was Wallartis Solutions, registered in the offshore Kingdom of Bahrain. It belongs in half to the Ukrainian Mikhail Andrukhovych and the citizen of Bahrain.
There are several websites of companies with this name on the network. One says that Wallartis Solutions is engaged in brokerage services and logistics, on the other – IT services, on the third – the introduction of green energy technologies. All sites appeared at the end of 2021 and 2022.
The investigation believes that Buryak and Krivopust involved Wallartis Solutions in their scheme, persuading its Ukrainian owner to cooperate.
In a matter of days, the company received payment from the Turks for its alleged subcontract. This is 580 thousand dollars (about 19.67 million hryvnia) – 3% of the cost of the contract of the Ministry of Defense. But the deliveries of the promised bronikov never materialized.
Whether the Turks themselves imported something is unknown, this is not discussed in the case file. At the request of the UP, the Ministry of Defense also did not report this.
But it seems that at that time Ukraine did not receive body armor at all. Two months later, the Ministry of Defense complained to the police about the unfulfilled supplies. At this time, a criminal case appeared.
The whole story was qualified by the investigation only as “fraud”. Suspicions, as of January, received three “faces” of the scheme: Buryak, Krivopust and Andrukhovych. The court allowed the arrest of the latter two. But all three are wanted and are probably abroad.
Andrukhovych’s lawyer told the UP that none of the suspects had been interrogated.

Purchases of the Ministry of Defense: “kickbacks” and fake bulletproof vests

Purchases of the Ministry of Defense: “kickbacks” and fake bulletproof vests

All three suspected of fraud on armored vehicles are hiding from the investigation, probably abroad
Turkish businessmen became the main witnesses of the investigation. In November, 7 months after signing the contract, they agreed with the Ministry of Defense that they would return to the state all 16.655 million euros for the contract, as well as a penalty in the amount of 143.7 thousand euros. So far, this process has just begun.
Officials do not figure at all in the formal plot of the case. Although a number of circumstances indicate that the “swindlers” were in all likelihood in touch with the Ministry of Defense.
Purchases of the Ministry of Defense: “kickbacks” and fake bulletproof vests
So, one of the witnesses told the investigation: information about the Turkish supplier, from whom armor can be ordered, was passed on to the Deputy Minister of Defense. To which one exactly – the UP is unknown, as well as the data of the witness, who, in fact, communicated with the deputy. These testimonies are mentioned in public court decisions, but the names are not published there.
Investigators found out that Buryak and Krivopust somehow found out when Ukraine sent funds to Turkey.
In the end, the entrepreneurs had a letter from the Ministry of Defense. One of the prosecutors in the case confirmed to the UP that the document was authentic.
At the same time, Dmitry Buryak is a fairly well-known businessman in Kyiv with Russian roots, he is mainly engaged in real estate development. Beets flew out of the country on February 23, the day before a full-scale war.
Ukrainian Konstantin Krivopust is not so recognizable, however, his name is “buzzing”. This is a lawyer who appears in a number of legal entities as a director or founder. Since 2012, a person with that name has been under investigation in the case of fictitious business and embezzlement of funds. The case was closed in 2020 – the prosecutor refused to file charges.
The very contract of the Ministry of Defense with the Turkish FarmTR Gida Tarim also raises doubts. Public data about this company indicate that it is not engaged in military at all, but agriculture.
The Ministry of Defense refused to give the UP any details about the signing of the contract for bulletproof vests. Neither who exactly negotiated with the Turks, nor the terms during which they had to supply body armor, nor whether the contract was even partially executed.
The department did not begin to answer questions about the role of Buryak and Krivopust in public procurement.
All this was called “the secret of the investigation” in the MOU. And even threatened that its disclosure entails criminal liability. Answer for UE signed Deputy Minister Vyacheslav Shapovalovwho has already resigned due to a corruption scandal over inflated prices for the purchase of food for the army.
But this story becomes more understandable thanks to one of the episodes. And the names that appear in it.
According to the UP, the official “faces of the scheme” are not the only ones whom the investigation considers involved in the story with bulletproof vests. Several other people came into the field of view of the investigators. Including the former Deputy Minister of Defense, and now one of the leaders of the special arms exporter of the Progress company, Alexander Mironyuk.
“Sofa” million, or not stolen, but lent
On the last day of the summer of 2022, the Ukrainian media space was stirred up by the news about the searches at the current head of the public procurement department of the Ministry of Defense Bohdan Khmelnytsky. The official was suspected of being involved in the bulletproof vest case.
Interlocutors of the UP that day convinced that a huge amount of money had been confiscated from the official of the Ministry of Defense. Allegedly, they were hidden in the sofa. However, it was not possible to establish at that time exactly what amount it was.
At our request from the Ministry of Defense acknowledgedthat there were searches at Khmelnytsky’s, but they categorically denied that at least some funds were confiscated.
And as the UP has now found out, the Ministry of Defense told the truth. During the search, no money was confiscated from the current head of the procurement department.
They were seized during a search of the former Deputy Minister Oleksandr Mironyuk, who, until his dismissal in 2021, was in charge of the procurement department. And which, by a strange coincidence, also appears in the bulletproof vest case.
Mironyuk was found to have 17 million 78 thousand hryvnias, 400 thousand 100 dollars and 100 thousand 380 euros.

Alexander Mironyuk // Procurement of the Ministry of Defense: “kickbacks” and fake bulletproof vests
On August 27, 2022, by the decision of the investigator, these funds were recognized as material evidence in criminal proceedings. Investigators immediately went to court to seize this money, but then something interesting began.
On September 7, the investigator, the judge of the Pechersk District Court, refused to arrest Mironyuk’s millions, although on the same day arrested on other property seized during searches in this case.
On September 12, the Pechersk Court arrested the money. All of these determinations are missing from the court register because, as explained by the OP in Judicial Information Systems, the investigators did not transfer data on the implementation of these decisions to the register.
Two months later, on November 17, Mironyuk’s lawyers succeeded in obtaining a ruling from the Kyiv Court of Appeal on cancellation arrest. This decision in the registry was published after the request of the UE.
According to the judge, the investigators did not provide sufficient evidence that the money was the object or result of the crime. In addition, the Unified Register of Pre-trial Investigations contained no information about Mironyuk’s involvement in the case or a notification of suspicion to him.
The investigators insisted that they “consider it established” that Mironyuk was involved. According to the UP, the police are convinced that the former deputy minister is not just involved, but could be among the organizers of the criminal scheme.
However, even after the decision of the court, the money was not returned to the figurant. Therefore, its representatives must once again separately apply to the court in order to receive these funds.
On December 8, 2022, the Pechersk Court additionally ordered the police to immediately return Mironyuk has millions of him, because the arrest has already been lifted from them. Interestingly, representatives of the prosecution did not come to this meeting at all. This decision was made public quietly, on New Year’s Eve, December 27th.
After all, one question arises: where did the official, who worked for years in state-owned companies and in the government, get such money in general?
Since access to the register of declarations is closed during martial law, it is impossible to revise the latest data on Mironyuk’s condition.
However, let’s say, according to his declaration for 2019, he had an income of 1.8 million hryvnia, 15 thousand dollars in cash and an apartment in Khmelnitsky.
At the request of the UE, to the NAPC reportedthat carried out the verification of Mironyuk’s declarations for 2018 and 2019. As evidenced by her resultsno significant violations were identified by the Agency.
Obviously, at work in the ministry, it would be impossible for an official to legally collect so much cash that was seized during the search.
As the UP managed to find out, it turns out that immediately after the searches, Mironyuk provided the court with a “document” that the money from the sofa was not his, he had borrowed it.
A notarized statement, concluded a week after the searches, states that in January 2022, all the seized money was lent to Mironyuk by Eleonora Duminsh, an 86-year-old resident of Kharkiv.

Purchases of the Ministry of Defense: “kickbacks” and fake bulletproof vests
Mrs. Eleanor has severe vision problems that prevented her from writing the application herself, so it had to be done by a notary.
One of the prosecutors in the case confirmed to the UP the authenticity of the document we had received.
As we managed to find out, Mrs. Duminsh is a relative of the founders of the Kharkiv “XADO-Holding”, which, among other things, is engaged in rifle production. In addition, since 2016, Eleonora Duminsh has been registered as a sole trader for wholesale trade, and during registration she indicated an e-mail and a phone number belonging to XADO.
This holding has a long-standing working relationship with the state-owned special exporter Progress, in which Mironyuk is employed before and after his work in the Ministry of Defense.
At one time, Progress had exclusive rights to promote XADO products for export.
The UE asked for a comment about the “loan” to all of Mironyuk’s phone numbers we have, but we did not receive a response until the time of publication.
At the same time, NABU, at the request of the CP, whether the stated data was checked for possible illegal enrichment of the ex-official of the MOU, reported that it had not investigated the mentioned proceedings and had no information about the seized media.
The NAPC told us that Mironyuk had not yet filed data on a significant change in his property status in connection with a probable “loan” for such a large amount.
***
Recently, the Ministry of Defense got into a corruption scandal with overpricing for the purchase of food. The story of Turkish armor, as it may seem at first glance, is about something completely different.
Formally, about how the state issued a mandate of trust to scammers who used it in their own interests. The Ministry of Defense reacted to the theft long before the publicity and is trying to return the funds.
But how did the scammers get into the top-secret and closed sphere of defense supplies anyway? How did they know about the contract, the progress of the agreement, the transfer of money? Could this have happened if someone inside the Department of Defense hadn’t helped them with this?
If you look more broadly, then all the high-profile corruption scandals of recent days are more similar to each other than it seems.
All these stories are combined by an incomprehensible desire for a decent person to snatch something from the state flow of money for their own pocket.
Steal, “bite off” – even despite the understanding that bulletproof vests not delivered due to your actions are hundreds of lost or crippled lives.
Snatch “some hundred thousand” for the future, while others lose everything.
Sonya Lukashova, Roman Romanyuk, translation Skeleton.Info