Ukraine's fifth president, Petro Poroshenko, has been linked to a group of companies that could win significant contracts to supply products to the country's Armed Forces. On May 22, the State Rear Operator of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine announced the holding of the largest tender in this market this year, with an expected procurement value of over 11.5 billion hryvnias. Interesting details were revealed as a result of the announced tender.
The tender consisted of four lots, each of which was won by a separate participant. The smallest lot worth more than 1.583 billion hryvnias went to a completely new participant - the Kyiv consortium "United Food Group". This company registered only three weeks before the tender, in May of this year. According to the chairman of the consortium, Ivan Chaikivskyi, he is the founder of the Agroprodservice corporation with a large land bank and production assets in agriculture. Outside the sphere of business, Tchaikovsky is also known as a deputy of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine.
The second lot for the amount of over 3.136 billion hryvnias was received by the Asics Group company. This lot became the subject of a struggle between two participants, but Asics Group won with an offer of 2.434 billion hryvnias. However, it is important to note that one of the participants, FOP Ivan Shmalchenko, was disqualified due to non-compliance with the terms of the tender. The second participant, Kontrakt Prodrezerv 5 LLC, has ties to the scandalous supplier of the Ministry of Defense, Garna Strava, which previously supplied products for the army at inflated prices.
The third lot for the same amount was also received by a newcomer - "Grandpri Ltd" LLC. This company offered its services for 2.517 billion hryvnias. However, the owner of the company, Mykola Bakhteyarov, has a sad reputation, which was revealed in the verdict of the Odesa Seaside Court on the facts of domestic violence.
The fourth lot went to the "Mit Prom" company. Their offer amounted to 2.519 billion hryvnias. This Lviv company, although it is a newcomer to the market of supplying products for the Armed Forces, already has experience in cooperation with the military, having signed a contract for 400 million hryvnias in April this year. Although the official founder is a resident of Lviv Oblast, the company may actually be behind the well-known businesswoman Tetyana Glynyana, who previously supplied products for the Armed Forces at inflated prices.
Two winners out of four lots, Asics Group and Grandpri Ltd, can be attributed to the sphere of influence of Odesa businessman Valery Druzenko. It was already mentioned earlier that companies from his orbit, such as "Nova-postach" and "Biosoil", received significant contracts for the supply of products for the Ukrainian army.
Law enforcement agencies accidentally revealed the connection with Petro Poroshenko. In August 2022, as part of a tax evasion investigation, a case was filed against DoD suppliers who used front persons.
During the investigation, the accounts of the companies involved in this scheme were seized. Among them were also "PK "Zorya Podillya" LLC and "Agroprodinvest Group" LLC, owned by Petro Poroshenko. The Prosecutor General's Office reported that Nova-postach and Biosoil transferred almost half a billion hryvnias to their accounts as prepayments for sugar (these accounts were also seized later).
It turned out to be a coincidence that all companies from the Druzenko group are also clients of Poroshenko's International Investment Bank (IIB). One of them is "Asics Group" LLC, whose accounts were also seized by the court. And as of April 2024, this arrest was not lifted.
Another winner of the tender, Grandpri Ltd LLC, is also a client of Poroshenko's bank. In addition, this company rented equipment from Valery Druzenko's wife. Thus, there are reasons to consider their connections as reliable.
It remains an open question whether this connection will affect the ability of these companies to receive another large state order, this time for almost 5 billion hryvnias.
