From Underpants to Missiles: Umeyrov Handed All Procurements to His Man

From underpants to missiles: Umeyrov handed all procurements to his man

5 In October morning the cabinet appointed new deputies of the Minister of Defense, including those who will oversee procurements. This appointment was more than expected, because since the dismissal of Minister Oleksiy Reznikov, signing of all Defense Ministry contracts has stopped.

“Umeyrov was constantly on business trips, left this to Pavlyk—the only deputy Reznikov the Cabinet did not remove. But he also signed nothing. So everyone was waiting for specialized deputies,” says a ministry insider.

At the time of the appointment, Umeyrov entered the ministry without a team. But after two weeks everything changed and 18 in September the Cabinet dismissed all deputy ministers and the state secretary of the structure, including Deputy Minister Denys Sharapov, former business partner of head of the Office of the President Andriy Yermak, who oversaw arms procurements at the ministry.

“After that, life in the ministry froze. Middle managers began preparing to be fired as well. Especially given rumors from the FM, that Umeyrov might still sweet-talk you today, and tomorrow you’ll lose access and stop answering calls,” says another ministry insider.

“Umeyrov is still an eastern man with a good education; he simply wouldn’t allow himself to become a pawn. I recall one phrase of his: don’t speak ill of me, so I won’t tell the truth about you,” says a source among senior officials.

Later a new Secretary of State was appointed—Ludmila Daragan took the post. In the FMU she was Deputy for Rustem Umeyrov. This was the first signal that Umeyrov would move his people behind him.

Although the process was not so straightforward. A week ago, 27 in September, the Cabinet appointed only three deputy ministers—Yuriy Dzhyhir for finances, Natalia Kalmykova for adaptation of the military and reform of the VLK, and Kateryna Chernohorenko (Deputy for Digital Development, Digital Transformations and Digitalization).

Previously Dzhyhir worked at the Ministry of Finance, Kalmykova headed the Ukrainian Veterans Fund, and Chernohorenko worked as a project manager at the Ministry of Digital Transformation, led the "Army of Drones" project.

But a week ago the most interesting appointments did not materialize. Although candidates existed, they fell away because the president allegedly said deputies must be from Umeyrov, not from political groups.

And then on Thursday information finally emerged about 3 new deputies.

New Deputy Minister of Defense Stanislav Haider will oversee institutional development. The Ministry expects his experience to help implement changes that will affect the ministry’s capability and lead to undeniable transparency and accountability. Previously he held the position of head of digital transformation at the NACP, and later worked on strategic planning of the Agency by OKR methodology.

Next, interestingly, Ivan Havryliuk will be deputy for military-technical policy.

“The most important tasks are the development of weapons and military equipment: a system of strategic planning, formation of military-technical policy for the Ministry of Defense, simplifying the process of adopting weapons and equipment;” the minister noted.

Earlier Havryliuk was an advisor to the commander of logistic forces and head of the Main Logistics Department, and deputy chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces. From April 2015 to March 2018 he led the Army’s rear services.

Among his tasks:

development of armament and military equipment: system of strategic planning, formation of military-technical policy of the Ministry of Defense, simplifying the process of adopting weapons and military equipment;

development of the Ukrainian defense-industrial complex: retooling the Ukrainian defense-industrial complex to NATO nomenclature, coordination of development of new samples of weapons and military equipment;

cooperation with partners: logistical support for materiel and technical assistance, shaping ministry policy, coordinating partnerships.

Another key Umeyrov deputy will be Dmytro Klimenkov—his task will be forming procurement policy for lethal and non-lethal procurements and launching the Resources Procurement Agency.

Previously Klimenkov was Umeyrov’s first deputy at the FMU. Earlier he worked as director of Ukrtranshaz, director of infrastructure and logistics at MAU, and led large projects at the Swedish company Ericsson. In addition, Klimenkov was Umeyrov’s deputy at the State Property Fund. Journalist Yuriy Nikolov noted that he is also a co-founder of the Muslim religious community Unity of Muslims.

“In Troieshchyna there is the Muslim Religious Community Unity of Muslims in the Desnyansky district of Kyiv. One of its co-founders is Dmitro Olegovych Klimenkov. Another co-founder is the Crimea mufti Ayder Isayevich Rustamov (head of the Spiritual Administration of Muslims of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea). Also Ayder Rustamov leads the Muslim community Kabir-Jami. All these Muslim organizations hold joint events with the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar People and the ASTEM Foundation. From Wikipedia it is known that Rustem Umeyrov is a sponsor of the Mejlis and was managing director of the ASTEM company, which manages investments in communications, information technology and infrastructure. So, it seems to me that Umeyrov appointed Klimenkov as deputy for non-armaments procurements with a clearly personal choice,” the journalist wrote.

In reality, Umeyrov appointed Klimenkov not only to non-lethal procurements but also to arms. This is the most lucrative position in the ministry. And in this respect his post would be even more lucrative than Denys Sharapov’s.

After V’yacheslav Shapovalov was dismissed from the ministry over a genital scandal, his functions of control over clothing and rations procurements passed to Sharapov. Thus Yermak’s ally began controlling, on one hand, ammunition procurement, and on the other—the “underwear elastic bands.”

But besides him, weapons procurements were also within Volodymyr Havrylova’s scope.

Before the creation of the Weapons Procurement Agency, all procurements were carried out by the relevant department of military-technical policy, now headed by Toomas Nahkur. Under minister Reznikov, the department reported to Havrylov.

After last year’s scandals with weapons procurements and inflated prices by special importers, Oleksiy Reznikov decided to create an Agency to transfer weapon procurements to. It was under Sharapov’s wing, and the current head of the Agency Volodymyr Pikuzo was considered his man.

For a year the agency worked as a run-of-the-mill special importer, even accruing its own debt. Only in summer a cabinet order and ministerial order allowed it to become a direct government customer. However, the agency still received a little more than 2 billion UAH. More than 250 billion has already been contracted by the DTP.

Now the DTP (previously under Havrylova) will oversee only R&D work that does not yield immediate corruption effects. Havryliuk will oversee this department, who is reportedly an honest man.

And Klimenkov will gain control over weapons procurement abroad, where money can be moved most easily, and over clothing and equipment procurements.

That is, all corruption-prone topics will be funneled to one deputy, and if needed he will be under even greater attack and criticism than Sharapov was under Reznikov.

Tetiana Nikolayenko, Censor.NET