Undercover Schemes of War: Vitaliy Bunechko 'Zeros' Out Company Fleets in Zhytomyr Region

A large public and legal conflict is unfolding in Zhytomyr Oblast around the forced seizure of property from a local enterprise for the needs of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. At the center of the scandal are Vitaliy Bunychko, the head of the Zhytomyr Regional Military Administration, and attorney Yevhen Hrushovets, who represents the interests of the company.

This was reported by former MP Ihor Mosiychuk, citing media reports.

According to the rights defender, under the pretext of fulfilling military-transport obligations and mobilization, the enterprise is effectively deprived of its entire vehicle fleet. By his signature, the head of the OVA approved the complete confiscation of the equipment. In the first stage, more than 50 units of transport have already been transferred to the Third Army Corps of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, and in the near future the confiscation of more than 80 vehicles is planned.

Of particular outrage among the company’s representatives are the procedural violations and the nature of the seized equipment. The attorney emphasizes that the business representatives were not provided with any official document of seizure, which bears signs of illegal obstruction of activity and raider takeover under the guise of helping the army.

Among the confiscated vehicles are about a dozen unique specialized cars designed to place explosives in rock during the extraction of raw materials. The market value of one such specialized vehicle is about 2 million USD (according to some estimates up to 800 thousand euros). However, in the accompanying seizure documentation, the equipment was valued at only 250 thousand hryvnias.

Due to the lack of need for such narrowly specialized functions on the front, it is planned to remove the superstructures from the cars, turning high-cost equipment into ordinary tractors, which would cause the property to lose its real value.

The publication of these facts provoked a stormy and unethical reaction from the regional head. Vitaliy Bunychko personally joined the discussion in the comments under the attorney’s Facebook post, where instead of official clarifications he resorted to personal insults. The head of the OVA called the lawyer “an underdeveloped, under legal” and reproached him for a misspelling in his surname.

In response to the aggressive attacks by the high-ranking official, Yevhen Hrushovskyi stated his readiness to resolve the issue solely within the legal framework and expressed hope to discuss the behavior and actions of the official during official interrogations by law enforcement agencies. Defense representatives emphasize that such a precedent creates a direct threat to any regional business, since under a similar scheme equipment could be confiscated from any company without documents.