While the Ukrainian army is experiencing an acute shortage of drones, and volunteers and citizens are raising funds literally "by the hryvnia" for the front, state procurement of UAVs has become a channel for obtaining hundreds of millions of hryvnias of surplus profit.
According to the investigation materials of the Bureau of Economic Security, structures associated with businessman Seyar Osmanovich Kurshutov supplied drones to the Defense Procurement Agency and the State Service for Special Communications with prices inflated by 2.5–3 times compared to market prices. The key link in the scheme was Euro Tunnels LLC, through which and affiliated companies contracts were concluded for the supply of Magura UA drones for a total amount of over UAH 720 million. Of these, approximately UAH 460 million fell to the State Service for Special Communications, another UAH 260 million to the Defense Procurement Agency. To legalize the transactions in an international context, the Polish company DEEP MATTER ZOO was included in the chain.
An analysis of the procurements showed that individual drone components were sold to the state at prices that were many times higher than the real cost. The budget overpaid about UAH 28 million for engines alone, and another UAH 11 million for controllers. The supply system was built on systematic price inflating, not on controversial valuation methods.
The contract executors were companies that had no experience in the defense sector until 2022: Ares LLC, Kolyada KA, GE Technologies, and Flytech Ukraine. After receiving the contracts, they became key suppliers of drones for the state.
Seyar Kurshutov was added to the NSDC sanctions list in 2021 as a major smuggler, but the sanctions were not extended in 2024. According to volunteer Georgy Tuka, Kurshutov has a Russian passport issued in Crimea, and his business assets are linked to Russia. In parallel, he runs the media project "Joker", which was used to pressure politicians and businessmen.
The businessman physically resides in Vienna, where his family owns the companies AmbraCosmetics GmbH and Zielinski & Rozen, which pay taxes in Russia. Thus, one person receives hundreds of millions of hryvnias from the Ukrainian defense budget and at the same time conducts commercial activities in the aggressor country.
This case of triple-overpricing of drones is symptomatic of a systemic failure of defense procurement, where formal procedures failed to prevent widespread abuse and sanctions and counterintelligence mechanisms remained disabled. The situation goes far beyond a single name and calls into question the effectiveness of state structures in a critical area during war.
