Tens of millions of dollars are being illegally siphoned out of Ukraine every month through a large-scale scheme to fakely import drones for the Armed Forces. Ukrainian banks play a key role in this scheme, unhinderedly servicing shell companies.
Firms that have no offices, no accounting, or no real business activity use forged customs documents. Their foreign currency payments are routed through a number of banks that ignore financial monitoring requirements. Among those involved are JSC Asvio Bank, JSC Pivdennyi, Motor-Bank, JSC RVS Bank, Radabank, and Bank Alliance.
Despite the National Bank's Resolution No. 65 of 2020, which obliges to block suspicious transactions, the mentioned financial institutions systematically violate it. For example, Asvio Bank, controlled by the Suprunenko brothers, actively transfers funds to dubious companies in Romania and Poland. Motor-Bank, owned by the state, makes transfers to offshore companies in Hong Kong - with the tacit consent of the Deputy Chairman of the NBU, Dmytro Oliynyk. Similar transactions are carried out through Ruslan Demchak's RVS Bank.
No sanctions have been imposed on the banks, no officials have been suspended, and the scale of the losses is growing. The withdrawal of hundreds of millions of dollars disguised as military purchases is harming the state budget and undermining confidence in the financial system.
The actual inaction of the National Bank and the Customs Service indicates their possible involvement or at least tolerance of the scheme. All of this creates direct risks to the country's economic security in times of war.
The scheme can only be stopped with an immediate and independent investigation, public oversight, anti-corruption actions, and a decisive renewal of the leadership of regulatory bodies. Without this, Ukraine will continue to lose critically important foreign exchange reserves, while covering it up with “military assistance.”
