200 tons of humanitarian aid without accounting and documents were discovered in warehouses in the Zaporizhia region in August 2023. This was only the tip of the iceberg of large-scale embezzlement schemes, in which, according to the investigation, local officials and businessman Vemir Davityan were involved.
According to NABU, since February 2022, at least the following have disappeared from warehouses and cargo hubs:
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22 sea containers,
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389 railway cars,
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220 trucks of humanitarian aid.
Part of the stolen goods were sold through Zaporizhzhia trading networks. The organized system was run by three key figures:
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Oleksandr Starukh, former head of the Zaporizhzhia OVA, provided political cover;
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Zlata Nekrasova, his deputy, coordinated sales channels;
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Vemir Davityan was responsible for logistics and finance.
Davityan also controlled the illegal export of Ukrainian grain from the occupied territories. Through the controlled JSC "Mykhailovsky Rayagropostach", agricultural products were exported to the Russian Federation, and then to the Black Sea ports with subsequent resale to the EU and Middle East countries. For this, fictitious documents and offshore companies were used.
Legalization of funds
Financial flows passed through companies associated with Davityan's father-in-law, Alexander Gaidar. Among them:
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Private enterprise "Lux-07",
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PE "Logistic-VVN",
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LLC "Logistics VVN GROUP".
Tax audits have recorded numerous violations, confirming a scheme of money laundering and tax evasion.
The exposure of these schemes was repeatedly accompanied by pressure on those who tried to make public the facts of the thefts. Under the cover of martial law, humanitarian aid intended for civilians became a commodity for the shadow market, and the region's agricultural resources became a source of income for the group, which acted in the interests of both its own enrichment and the occupiers.
