Clan of the “watcher” in Zaporizhzhia: How Umeyrov brings relatives of corruption suspects into the Ministry of Defense into his orbit

Clan of the “watcher” in Zaporizhzhia: How Umeyrov brings relatives of corruption suspects into the Ministry of Defense into his orbit

Rustem Umeyrov held the position of head of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine for a year, but there were no significant improvements in the work of the agency. Moreover, in 2023, Diana Davityan was appointed as an advisor to the Patronage Service of the Minister of Defense of Ukraine. Her brother, Vemir Davityan, became the subject of suspicions of misappropriating humanitarian aid from the United States. In connection with this, journalists investigated Vemir Davityan’s connections with officials of the Office of the President and determined whether he is really a “watcher” in Zaporizhzhia.

After the dismissal of former Minister of Defense Oleksii Reznikov, who was involved in a scandal over the purchase of Turkish jackets for Ukrainian soldiers with full prepayment of 30 million dollars and eggs for 17 hryvnias, Rustem Umeyrov was appointed Minister of Defense of Ukraine. He was widely presented as an effective administrator. But increasingly today the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, headed by Umeyrov, is called the “Ministry of Chaos.” And then the Center for Countering Corruption on its Facebook page explains this by saying that the ministry has now experienced a management collapse. This is reported by StopKor.

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Clan of the “watcher” in Zaporizhzhia: How Umeyrov brings relatives of corruption suspects into the Ministry of Defense into his orbit

This is explained by the fact that one line of work is controlled by several deputies at once, so it is not always clear who is responsible for what. For example, as reported by Ukrainska Pravda, international cooperation is simultaneously handled by five deputies along with the minister himself: First Deputy Minister Ivan Gavrylyuk, deputy for the development of military equipment and armament Oleksandr Serhiy (and his Department of Military Technical Policy), the relevant deputy for European integration Oleksandr Balanuutsa (and his Department of International Defense Cooperation), Deputy for Institutional Development Stanislav Haider (coordinates work of coalitions of capacities), Deputy for Procurement Dmytro Klymenkov (and his Department of Procurement Policy).

But at the same time a lot of international cooperation is de facto coordinated by Diana Davityan, adviser to the Patronage Service of the Minister of Defense of Ukraine, who, in particular, is responsible for strategic communications at the Ministry.

Clan of the “watcher” in Zaporizhzhia: How Umeyrov brings relatives of corruption suspects into the Ministry of Defense into his orbit

Davityan is a professional journalist. She previously worked as a political commentator for Focus magazine, was a PR manager for the founder of LLC “Ukr-China Communications” Vyacheslav Lysenko. And in 2019, she was involved in creating content for the party “Voice.”

But what is interesting is that she is the sister of Vemir Davityan, a Zaporizhzhia businessman, and the daughter of Davityan Suren Vemirovich, a deputy of the Zaporizhzhia City Council.

An ordinary Zaporizhzhia businessman with “high” friends

Who is Vemir Davityan and why did StopKor journalists take an interest in him? Official information from OpenDataBot shows that he is the owner of 5 companies: LLC “YF Novem” (Kyiv), LLC “DV Invest” (Kyiv), LLC “BizGroup” (Kyiv), LLC “DV Development Group” (Kyiv) and LLC “Group 9” (Dnipro); in the first two he is a director.

Clan of the “watcher” in Zaporizhzhia: How Umeyrov brings relatives of corruption suspects into the Ministry of Defense into his orbit

These firms have a wide range of activities: sand, gravel and clay extraction; car rental, real estate management, security activities, production of tobacco for hookahs. As an individual entrepreneur, Vemir Surenovich provides legal services.

It is also known that the businessman supports the Zaporizhzhia Chess Federation, sponsors city tournaments, plays chess himself, does CrossFit, and collects rare automobile models.

But if you look at the official income of his companies, they are not large. For example, LLC “YF Novem” in 2022 was negative, and there is no more data. LLC “YF Novem” has a negative indicator in 2023 as well.

Clan of the “watcher” in Zaporizhzhia: How Umeyrov brings relatives of corruption suspects into the Ministry of Defense into his orbit

So, the question arises: where did the funds for expensive cars and sponsorship come from?

Clan of the “watcher” in Zaporizhzhia: How Umeyrov brings relatives of corruption suspects into the Ministry of Defense into his orbit

By the way, Vemir Davityan calls Davyd Arahamiya his friend and visits the Office of the President, although he denies involvement in resolving any issues on behalf of the OP. Journalists repeatedly noted that Vemir Davityan’s Mercedes was picked up by Davyd Arahamiya under the Office of the President.

He himself explained it this way: “I agreed to meet with Davyd Arahamiya, we know each other and have been friends for many years. We agreed to meet there (under the OP, — ed.) We picked him up, we went to have dinner. (...) I do not oversee any issues except my life and my business. I am not at all interested in what is happening at the Office of the President, what is happening in the faction, where the head of the faction is my friend. Just as he is not interested in what is happening in my work.”

Clan of the “watcher” in Zaporizhzhia: How Umeyrov brings relatives of corruption suspects into the Ministry of Defense into his orbit

Today he is also the director of the International Charitable Foundation of Alexander Petrovsky “Solidarity”

Clan of the “watcher” in Zaporizhzhia: How Umeyrov brings relatives of corruption suspects into the Ministry of Defense into his orbit

Zaporizhzhia “watcher” and looted humanitarian aid

And although all of Davityan’s companies are registered in Kyiv and Dnipro, he also runs a business in Zaporizhzhia region. Moreover, he was involved in a scandal over looted humanitarian aid. It is said that Vemir Davityan organized the scheme of mass looting of humanitarian aid in the regions. According to media, Davityan Vemir Surenovich earned money on this together with Naryk-Petrovskyi.

By the way, in Zaporizhzhia Davityan is also called the shadow curator of the region from the “Servant of the People” party, who can resolve any issue.

This was written on political analyst Oleksandr Kochetkov’s Facebook page.

Clan of the “watcher” in Zaporizhzhia: How Umeyrov brings relatives of corruption suspects into the Ministry of Defense into his orbit

Then they spoke about possible involvement of Zaporizhzhia region officials: head of Zaporizhzhia Regional Military Administration Oleksandr Starukh, secretary of Zaporizhzhia City Council Anatolii Kurtev, deputy of Zaporizhzhia City Council Viktor Shcherbyna, and deputy head of Zaporizhzhia Regional Military Administration Zlata Nekrasova.

However, the loudly announced in August 2022 year joint investigation by the Security Service of Ukraine and the National Anti-Corruption Bureau into the criminal case of looting humanitarian aid from the United States seems to have yielded no results.

And later, in 21 November, information appeared that at one local enterprise 200 tons of stolen humanitarian aid were found. It was allegedly handed over to the military. And three days later another 300 tons were found. The food products spoiled, so everything had to be discarded. Imagine, when the whole world was trying to help our troops, insufficiently supplied with food, tons of products were simply thrown away.

If we talk about Vemir Davityan’s connections with Zaporizhzhia officials, the humanitarian scandal is just one of many. For example, Vemir Davityan is linked to the controversial Sensar Group (LLC “SENSAR GROUP”), which includes LLC “Stroy- Technologies,” which tried to engage in restoring Ohamatdyta. This developer is associated with brothers Marchenko. According to the Lviv publication “Forpost,” in 2015 year former governor of Zaporizhzhia Oblast Hryhoriy Samardak introduced Marchenko to businessman Vemir Davityan. Since then, as Forpost writes, their friendship has been cemented with joint business projects. Perhaps that is why Sensar Group, with authorized capital of 10 thousand hryvnias, took on a multi-million contract. It is hard to believe in the naivety of officials who could have easily given more than 300 million hryvnias to a company without the necessary experience. Znay.ua also writes about this friendly connection, naming Marchenko and Davityan as allies.

Therefore, Davityan’s arrival at the Ministry of Defense evidently was not accidental. And considering the connections and cases of her brother Vemir, it is hard to imagine that with such leadership this ministry will become a “ministry of victory,” but time will tell.