Helped corrupt skills: Exnaradep became the largest weapon supplier in Ukraine - NYT
In the first weeks of a full -scale Russian invasion, when the Russian Federation was coming to Kiev, the Armed Forces needed weapons desperately, and representatives of the Ukrainian government contacted Sergei Pashinsky, the former acting. Heads of the Presidential Administration and the People's Deputy, who has been responsible for military expenses for years. Despite the fact that after the campaign to combat President Vladimir Zelensky, Pashinsky was in political exile.
About it reports The New York Times. In 2019, Zelensky said on television that if you go outside and ask people if they consider the Pashinsky criminal, 100 out of 100 will be guaranteed: yes. At the same time, Pashinsky's authors say, there were links in the armed business and perhaps more importantly, he knew how to work under pressure and all bureaucratic red tape. During the war, this skill was invaluable.
A year and a half before the war, the Investigation of The New York Times showed that the company related to Pashinsky became the largest private weapon supplier for Ukraine. The company purchased and sold grenades, artillery shells and missiles through intermediaries in Europe. Last year, Ukrainian Armored Technology was the highest turnover in its history. Sales reached $ 350 million, while the year before the war they were at the level of 2.
8 million at the same time on Ukrainian Armored Technology again initiated the investigation. The established prices and financial ties with officials responsible for public procurement and foreign companies are being studied, two authorities, known to the question, reported. This month, the offices of a state -owned company conducted searches: searched for evidence against Ukrainian Armored Technology, according to government sources of journalists.
Ukrainian officials have stopped bringing to the black list of suppliers who stole the military, and abandoned many rules of public disclosure of information that can make self -interest interests. In the near future, this approach seemed justified. Ukraine restrained the aggressor before the arrival of international aid.
But Ukrainian Armored Technology has current contracts for tens of millions of dollars, and in the long run there is a risk that such temporary measures will be rooted, and people like Pashinsky will be enriched during the war and will become influential as before. The Ukrainian government is aware of such a risk. According to Deputy Minister of Defense Volodymyr Gavrilov, there is no illusions about this.
The journalistic investigation showed that the Pashinsky network buys weapons and then sells, then buys and sells again, according to information from secret contracts and government documents received by journalists. With each agreement, the price and therefore the profit of Pashinsky people grow, and the final consumer - the Ukrainian military - the goods reach the highest price.
Representatives of the event avoid public criticism, but in private conversations they say that it is because of the emergence of Pashinsky, American and British governments in Ukraine that they buy ammunition for Ukraine, and not simply transfer money to Kiev. Pashinsky, as the head of an industrial trading group engaged in weapons, denies that he has some financial interest in the weapons.
He acknowledges that he is being investigated, but explains that it is because of a misconception of some government officials who believe that weapons are profitable. He calls himself a responsible citizen of his country who has never betrayed it or betray it. As for Zelensky's past statements, Pashinsky explained that the President had made mistakes as an ordinary person who was not immune to such.