Tests of Credibility. How Supplies to Fight the Coronavirus Were Brought to Ukraine

Tests of Credibility. How Supplies to Fight the Coronavirus Were Brought to Ukraine

23 March, an Il-76 aircraft delivered Chinese coronavirus tests and medical equipment to Ukraine. However, the shipment size turned out to be significantly smaller than what President Volodymyr Zelensky had promised.

This is reported today by the publication “Focus.”

Amid the scandal that erupted over this, Member of Parliament Andriy Motovilovets (Servant of the People), who accompanied the flight from China, gave quick interviews to two outlets at once — Ukrainska Pravda and LIGA.net — in which he tried to explain what happened.

A total of 10 people went to China on the special flight. According to Motovilovets, he was drawn into this mission on the initiative of Deputy Head of the President’s Office Kyrylo Tymoshenko.

He said that on 17 March he went into the President’s Office and asked if they needed help; he was then asked to help organize the work of the headquarters for collecting money from business.

“I invited a number of financiers, we deployed a small headquarters that accumulates money and searches for suppliers. I was a sort of liaison between suppliers, Ukrainian businessmen who provided money for purchases, and government bodies. Therefore it was decided that I should accompany the cargo,” the MP said.

He said the flight to China was financed by the Ministry of Defense (he estimated the cost of the flight at 200–260 thousand dollars), and the purchases themselves were financed by big business, with whom Zelensky had met earlier.

Zelensky’s meeting with big business took place on 17 March. It was attended by 16 businessmen (among them Rinat Akhmetov, Ihor Kolomoisky, Oleksandr Yaroslavsky and Serhiy Tyhypko) / Photo: President’s Office

At the same time, the purchase of PCR test systems was financed personally by Chinese billionaire Jack Ma, founder of Alibaba.

“Jack Ma helped our side. He is friends with Oleksandr Yaroslavsky. This letter is about Jack Ma loving Ukraine. They wanted to give us laboratory tests in some amount,” Motovilovets said.

However, the deputy refused to name the amounts spent on purchasing tests and medical equipment.

“This information will be provided later; it is not being commented on now. You’ve probably heard what is happening in the world. Nobody wants to disclose prices. We are ready for an audit after the work is finished,” the “Servant of the People” noted.

Agents of Ukrainian businessmen helped find the goods. In particular, Motovilovets noted that representatives of Vadym Novynskyi’s Smart Holding were “directly running around and searching” (it should be noted that Novynskyi himself was absent from the meeting with the president).

Motovilovets said the plane delivered a total of 21,2 tons of goods to Ukraine (about 15 items), but he also refused to answer why they brought only 250 thousand rapid tests, although the president promised either a million or 10 million.

“Let the competent authorities comment. This is a very sensitive topic,” the deputy said.

As the publication recalls, the delivery of tests from China was announced by President Volodymyr Zelensky. On 16 May he said that a million “rapid tests” should be delivered to Ukraine on Saturday, 21 March. However, already on 20 March the president changed the timing and size of the shipment. In a video address he announced that in the coming days China would bring 10 million laboratory tests, 10 ventilators, 1 million masks, 400 thousand rapid tests and 10 thousand liters of disinfectant.

The Il-76 aircraft flew to China for the goods on 20 March and returned in the night of 23 March.

Even during the flight a scandal arose about which exact tests would be brought to Ukraine. When the plane was still in China, the lawyer Yevhenia Zakrevska, citing state health ministry expert Pavlo Polamarchuk, wrote on Facebook that only rapid tests were being brought to Ukraine, and the government was not buying PCR test systems.

The thing is, COVID-19 rapid tests have a large margin of error. According to doctors, they can detect the virus only after antibodies appear in the body. That happens 5–6 days after symptoms appear, while a person can be contagious for about a week before such a test can confirm the infection. In turn, PCR test systems reliably establish the presence or absence of the virus even before the first symptoms appear.

It turned out that two types of tests were delivered to Ukraine, but their quantities were significantly lower than announced by the president. The plane delivered 521 PCR test system (enough to test about 50 thousand people) and 250 thousand rapid tests (150 thousand of them were handed over to the Public Health Center, and the rest — to the Armed Forces, the Border Service, the National Guard and the National Police).

The publication notes that none of the scandals over the test deliveries were commented on by officials. At the same time, discussion of them continues actively on social media. Anonymous Telegram channels joined in (Dark Knight, Golda Meir, Kompromat.leaks and others, which cite each other).

Those channels place the blame for the communication failure on Deputy Head of the President’s Office Tymoshenko, who allegedly gave the president the wrong figures. Conspiracy theories are even being put forward that the missing tests were actually sold off individually or handed to businessmen who “chipped in” for them.

President Zelensky himself said in his new video address that there will be new deliveries from China, South Korea and other unnamed countries in the near future, but he did not give exact dates. Motovilovets, in turn, said that new flights should take place this week. Officials remain silent about how many and within what timeframe the new tests should ultimately be delivered.