Charles R. Davis
Sat, August 12, 2023
Ukrainian soldiers load ammunition into a 2s9 artillery vehicle in Donetsk Oblast on April 14, 2023.
Diego Herrera Carcedo/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images
Ukrainian Armored Technology has emerged as a top weapons supplier for Kyiv.
The company, whose sales have skyrocketed, is believed to be controlled by Serhiy Pashinsky.
Before the war, Ukrainian President Volodymr Zelenskyy described Pashinsky as a "criminal."
A Ukrainian arms dealer widely suspected of corruption before Russia's full-scale invasion has now emerged as a top weapons supplier for the government in Kyiv.
Serhiy Pashinsky, a former member of parliament, is today head of Ukraine's arms trade association. Sales at his company, Ukrainian Armored Technology, have jumped from less than $3 million before the war to hundreds of millions of dollars today, The New York Times reported Saturday.
Ukrainian Armored Technology has since February 2022 helped secure scores of bombs and bullets across Europe for use by the country's armed forces, according to the Times. Since the war began, it has been one of Kyiv's most reliable suppliers.
That's despite the fact that Pashinsky, before the war, was a pariah, a man who was put under house arrest over a road rage incident and described by Zelenskyy himself as a "criminal" amid allegations of corruption.
But, according to the Times, Pashinsky's ties to arms dealers made officials overlook those earlier accusations. Bulgaria, for example, would not sell Ukraine the Soviet-era ammunition it needs, the Times reported, fearing it would invite retaliation from Russia. Pashinsky was able to negotiate a deal whereby the ammunition was sold to a middleman in Poland who in turn passed it on to Ukraine, for a cost.
Ukrainian Armored Technology experienced a windfall. In 2021, according to the Times, it reported just $2.8 million in sales. In 2022, that figure rose to more than $350 million.
The company's use of middlemen may have been essential in the early days of the war. But Ukraine's reliance on them is a reminder of the country's decades-long struggle with corruption, one that its leadership is once again taking steps to publicly address.
The Times noted that Pashinsky and Ukrainian Armored Technology are once again the subject of an anti-corruption investigation. And the outlet's report comes a day after Zelenskyy announced the firing of military officials tasked with recruitment, citing reports that some were accepting bribes in return for exempting men from the draft. Ukraine, Zelenskyy said earlier this year, will not "return to the way things used to be."
"Of course, now the main focus is the issue of defense, this is the issue of foreign policy, this is the issue of war," he said. "But this does not mean that I do not see and hear what is being said in society at various levels, both at the central level and in the regions."
Despite concerns about corruption in Ukraine, however, experts told Insider last year that there's no evidence that weapons meant for the front lines are being diverted to the black market in any sizable numbers.
Ukrainian Armored Technology has emerged as a top weapons supplier for Kyiv.
The company, whose sales have skyrocketed, is believed to be controlled by Serhiy Pashinsky.
Before the war, Ukrainian President Volodymr Zelenskyy described Pashinsky as a "criminal."
A Ukrainian arms dealer widely suspected of corruption before Russia's full-scale invasion has now emerged as a top weapons supplier for the government in Kyiv.
Serhiy Pashinsky, a former member of parliament, is today head of Ukraine's arms trade association. Sales at his company, Ukrainian Armored Technology, have jumped from less than $3 million before the war to hundreds of millions of dollars today, The New York Times reported Saturday.
Ukrainian Armored Technology has since February 2022 helped secure scores of bombs and bullets across Europe for use by the country's armed forces, according to the Times. Since the war began, it has been one of Kyiv's most reliable suppliers.
That's despite the fact that Pashinsky, before the war, was a pariah, a man who was put under house arrest over a road rage incident and described by Zelenskyy himself as a "criminal" amid allegations of corruption.
But, according to the Times, Pashinsky's ties to arms dealers made officials overlook those earlier accusations. Bulgaria, for example, would not sell Ukraine the Soviet-era ammunition it needs, the Times reported, fearing it would invite retaliation from Russia. Pashinsky was able to negotiate a deal whereby the ammunition was sold to a middleman in Poland who in turn passed it on to Ukraine, for a cost.
Ukrainian Armored Technology experienced a windfall. In 2021, according to the Times, it reported just $2.8 million in sales. In 2022, that figure rose to more than $350 million.
The company's use of middlemen may have been essential in the early days of the war. But Ukraine's reliance on them is a reminder of the country's decades-long struggle with corruption, one that its leadership is once again taking steps to publicly address.
The Times noted that Pashinsky and Ukrainian Armored Technology are once again the subject of an anti-corruption investigation. And the outlet's report comes a day after Zelenskyy announced the firing of military officials tasked with recruitment, citing reports that some were accepting bribes in return for exempting men from the draft. Ukraine, Zelenskyy said earlier this year, will not "return to the way things used to be."
"Of course, now the main focus is the issue of defense, this is the issue of foreign policy, this is the issue of war," he said. "But this does not mean that I do not see and hear what is being said in society at various levels, both at the central level and in the regions."
Despite concerns about corruption in Ukraine, however, experts told Insider last year that there's no evidence that weapons meant for the front lines are being diverted to the black market in any sizable numbers.
Zelenskyy fires recruitment officials for accepting $10,000 bribes. Almost all Ukrainians think the country has a problem with corruption, survey suggests.
Nathan Rennolds
Updated Sun, August 13, 2023
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said via his Telegram channel on Friday that he'd dismissed the heads of Ukraine's regional-military committees as investigations into corruption in Ukraine's armed-forces recruitment continue.
Nathan Rennolds
Updated Sun, August 13, 2023
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said via his Telegram channel on Friday that he'd dismissed the heads of Ukraine's regional-military committees as investigations into corruption in Ukraine's armed-forces recruitment continue.
Efrem Lukatsky/AP Photo
In one poll, 77.6% of surveyed Ukrainians said Zelenskyy was responsible for government corruption.
The survey included 2,011 interviews with people from 135 settlements in Ukraine.
It came out as Zelenskyy dismissed all the heads of Ukraine's regional-military committees.
Nearly all surveyed Ukrainians — 89% — in a newly released survey said corruption was the country's most serious problem after the war against Russia. The poll came out as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy launched an investigation into bribery related to military recruitment.
A survey by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology, in cooperation with the US Agency for International Development project "Support of Leader Organizations in Combating Corruption in Ukraine," found that: "Second only to the war, corruption is perceived as the most serious problem in Ukraine by 89% of citizens.
"Despite a notable improvement in the public perception of corruption prevalence, 94% of respondents still consider corruption to be pervasive across Ukraine."
The survey was conducted in winter and included interviews with over 13,000 people, including internally and externally displaced Ukrainians.
Meanwhile, over 75% of Ukrainians in a second survey said they believed that Zelenskyy was responsible for corruption in the country's military and government administrations, Interfax-Ukraine, a Ukrainian news agency, said.
Interfax reported that in the survey — which it said the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology carried out for the Ilko Kucheriv Democratic Initiatives Foundation think tank — 77.6% of surveyed Ukrainians said they believed that the president was "directly responsible" for the corruption. The report cited a statement by the think tank's executive director, Petro Burkovskyy.
"Procrastination in solving problems that undermine people's faith in victory will also hit the president himself," Burkovskyy said.
The Interfax-Ukraine report said that for the second survey, the institute carried out 2,011 interviews in July with people from 135 settlements in Ukraine.
Zelenskyy: Recruitment bribes at a time of war is 'high treason'
On Friday, Zelenskyy said he dismissed the heads of Ukraine's regional-military committees as investigations into corruption in Ukraine continued, particularly in its armed-forces recruitment.
"We are dismissing all regional military commissars," a statement on Zelenskyy's official Telegram channel said. "This system should be run by people who know exactly what war is and why cynicism and bribery during war is high treason."
The military officials are accused of taking cash and cryptocurrency bribes or helping people eligible to be called up to fight to flee Ukraine, Zelenskyy said in a video posted on social media, BBC News reported.
Last month, Ukrainian investigators detained the former military commissioner of the Odesa region on charges of illegal enrichment, dereliction of duty, and evading military service, local reports said.
Investigators allege that he and his family bought property in Spain and luxury automobiles worth $4 million.
There are about 1,795 military commissars in Ukraine, of whom about 135 are under surveillance by the National Agency on Corruption Prevention, Newsweek reported.
The commissars, Zelenskyy's Telegram message added, will be replaced by "soldiers who have been to the front or who cannot be in the trenches because they have lost their health, lost their limbs, but have retained their dignity and have no cynicism — they can be entrusted with this recruitment system."
Corruption scandals have plagued Ukraine during recent years, with then-Vice President Joe Biden saying in 2015 that it was eating the country "like a cancer."
In one poll, 77.6% of surveyed Ukrainians said Zelenskyy was responsible for government corruption.
The survey included 2,011 interviews with people from 135 settlements in Ukraine.
It came out as Zelenskyy dismissed all the heads of Ukraine's regional-military committees.
Nearly all surveyed Ukrainians — 89% — in a newly released survey said corruption was the country's most serious problem after the war against Russia. The poll came out as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy launched an investigation into bribery related to military recruitment.
A survey by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology, in cooperation with the US Agency for International Development project "Support of Leader Organizations in Combating Corruption in Ukraine," found that: "Second only to the war, corruption is perceived as the most serious problem in Ukraine by 89% of citizens.
"Despite a notable improvement in the public perception of corruption prevalence, 94% of respondents still consider corruption to be pervasive across Ukraine."
The survey was conducted in winter and included interviews with over 13,000 people, including internally and externally displaced Ukrainians.
Meanwhile, over 75% of Ukrainians in a second survey said they believed that Zelenskyy was responsible for corruption in the country's military and government administrations, Interfax-Ukraine, a Ukrainian news agency, said.
Interfax reported that in the survey — which it said the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology carried out for the Ilko Kucheriv Democratic Initiatives Foundation think tank — 77.6% of surveyed Ukrainians said they believed that the president was "directly responsible" for the corruption. The report cited a statement by the think tank's executive director, Petro Burkovskyy.
"Procrastination in solving problems that undermine people's faith in victory will also hit the president himself," Burkovskyy said.
The Interfax-Ukraine report said that for the second survey, the institute carried out 2,011 interviews in July with people from 135 settlements in Ukraine.
Zelenskyy: Recruitment bribes at a time of war is 'high treason'
On Friday, Zelenskyy said he dismissed the heads of Ukraine's regional-military committees as investigations into corruption in Ukraine continued, particularly in its armed-forces recruitment.
"We are dismissing all regional military commissars," a statement on Zelenskyy's official Telegram channel said. "This system should be run by people who know exactly what war is and why cynicism and bribery during war is high treason."
The military officials are accused of taking cash and cryptocurrency bribes or helping people eligible to be called up to fight to flee Ukraine, Zelenskyy said in a video posted on social media, BBC News reported.
Last month, Ukrainian investigators detained the former military commissioner of the Odesa region on charges of illegal enrichment, dereliction of duty, and evading military service, local reports said.
Investigators allege that he and his family bought property in Spain and luxury automobiles worth $4 million.
There are about 1,795 military commissars in Ukraine, of whom about 135 are under surveillance by the National Agency on Corruption Prevention, Newsweek reported.
The commissars, Zelenskyy's Telegram message added, will be replaced by "soldiers who have been to the front or who cannot be in the trenches because they have lost their health, lost their limbs, but have retained their dignity and have no cynicism — they can be entrusted with this recruitment system."
Corruption scandals have plagued Ukraine during recent years, with then-Vice President Joe Biden saying in 2015 that it was eating the country "like a cancer."
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