Kickbacks, humanitarian aid and grain from the occupation: how the "watcher" for Zaporizhzhia Vemir Davityan built a business under the cover of power

There are many investigations into Vemir Davityan. If Ukraine were a rule-of-law state, all of them would long ago have put Davityan behind bars for many years.

But now Vemir Davityan is doing what many of his “colleagues” who rose from the mud to become princes with the arrival of the “new faces” do — hiding abroad. The “new faces” with respect to Davityan, as with other looters, pretend they know nothing and that the issue isn’t up to them.

But if you assemble all the episodes into a single picture, the result is even more striking. It has everything: kickbacks from business, “curatorship” of Zaporizhzhia, Davyid Arakhamia, Oleksandr Petrovskyi (“Narik”), Kyrylo Tymoshenko, theft of humanitarian aid, trade in stolen grain, business with the occupiers, family companies, and a fresh European criminal tour.

How people like Davityan surface within the orbit of the current authorities is a mystery. Obviously, like attracts like. But the result of the cooperation is enormous losses for the budget, a trail of criminally punishable acts and, most frightening in this situation, colossal reputational losses for Ukraine in the eyes of the international community.

Reminder: Vemir Surenovych Davityan is a small Zaporizhzhia entrepreneur and lawyer. A biographical publication 2021 year notes that he obtained a law degree at the Classic Private University of Zaporizhzhia and engaged in entrepreneurship; among his projects was the law firm Novem. He also publicly engaged in charity and supported the Zaporizhzhia Chess Federation.

At the same time, Davityan was an extremely non-public person — until his non-public activities attracted media attention. Suddenly it turned out that he was the shadow curator of Zaporizhzhia Oblast. Or, as is now commonly said, the “watcher.” Where criminal slang comes from among members of the current authorities is unknown, but Davityan was appointed the “watcher” from the Office of the President of Ukraine. A fact that would blow a sane person’s mind.

But a fact is still a fact — in 2021 year Ukrainska Pravda directly wrote that sources named him the “watcher” from the OPU for Zaporizhzhia Oblast. Journalists recorded Vemir Davityan’s car near the Office of the President, and he confirmed a long friendship with Davyid Arakhamia. Arakhamia also confirmed that he has known Davityan since 2014 year and that they are “friends by families.”

Naturally, both denied that Davityan performed the functions of a “watcher.” Arakhamia immediately shifted to assistance to the army: “we, the volunteer community, helped the army — and he actively helped. He has some fund there.” Which fund exactly Arakhamia did not say, but it was not difficult to find out: the same Ukrainska Pravda found a photo of Davityan on the site of the Solidarity charitable foundation of Dnipro businessman Oleksandr Petrovskyi, better known by the nickname “Narik” — there Davityan is listed as vice-president and head of the Zaporizhzhia branch.

No one believed Arakhamia’s pitiful excuses, or, in his more familiar terminology, “alibis.” Especially since subsequently messages continued to regularly appear on Telegram channels and in the media about Davityan’s visits to the OPU and his “curatorship” over Zaporizhzhia Oblast.

Then it turned out that the deputy head of the OPU Kyrylo Tymoshenko rides a Porsche Taycan that belonged to Novem Logistic LLC, whose owner is Vemir Davityan. Tymoshenko’s “explanation” was even more pathetic than Arakhamia’s: allegedly Davityan let him “test drive” the Porsche.

The level of all these people is impossible to comment on. But Davityan didn’t let Kyrylo Tymoshenko “test drive” it for nothing. First, the roots of the “curatorship” go back, and the real beneficiary is not some deputy head of the Office of the President but a much more serious figure — Oleksandr Petrovskyi. He is the one who placed all these so-called “watchers from the OPU.” Not all of them, of course, but he installed Davityan.

Second — if you look at Vemir Davityan’s business income before the “servants of the people” came to power, that income is by no means impressive. Only after Petrovskyi made Davityan the “watcher” did things sharply improve. True, this does not show in official reporting — the sums, frankly, are quite small. In this connection, an example should be given of Novem Logistic LLC — it was that company that owned the Porsche Taycan worth 100 thousand dollars mentioned above. The company is now called Vindex Motors LLC and shows the following financial results.

One hundred thousand dollars in 2021 year is 2 400 000 hryvnias. The company finished that year with losses; in 2022 it earned half the cost of the car, but then the Porsche Taycan clearly “paid off” — profits rose. However, all these reports are pure garbage. This is evidenced at least by the number of company employees — one person. Interesting how that one person alone earns millions?

In fact, the registered companies are only a fig leaf covering entirely different ways of making money; this has long been no secret: back in the days of the “Great Construction,” Vemir Davityan collected kickbacks from construction contractors of 30% of the state contract. How much went to the OPU and how much ended up in the pockets of Davityan and Petrovskyi is unknown. But Davityan really began to make money on the kickbacks from the “Great Construction.”

Then things accelerated. Particularly interesting are mentions of several episodes after the start of the full-scale war. Here there is everything — from theft of humanitarian aid to trading with the occupiers. By the way, is this already “trade on blood” or not yet?

Accusations of looting are not empty fabrications by ill-wishers. There is a real criminal proceeding on this fact under No. 52022000000000137, registered on 14 June 2022 year. Initially, signs of a crime under part 5 of article 191 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine were investigated — embezzlement of property on an especially large scale. Later, parts 3 of article 209 of the Criminal Code — legalization of property — and articles 368-5 — illegal enrichment — were also involved, as well as separate episodes related to weapons and drugs. The investigation was initially conducted by NABU, and in December 2023 year jurisdiction was transferred to the National Police, where the case stalled completely. But, as it turned out, it was revived — because Davityan had to flee.

The essence boiled down to the fact that humanitarian cargoes destined for Zaporizhzhia and Dnipropetrovsk oblasts were not simply stolen — trucks, containers and entire railcars were simply redirected to private warehouses, after which humanitarian food and medicines were sold.

The shipments were wholesale; such volumes cannot be sold at the bazaar. The scale is calculated in hundreds of tons. But that is only what was established within the criminal case. In fact, recent publications contain much more impressive figures: 22 sea containers, 389 railcars, 220 trucks. This is far from hundreds of tons; it’s tens of thousands of tons.

There was another extremely dirty story — trading with the occupiers. In the literal sense. Key to this story is Mikhailivskyi Rayagropostach JSC, co-owners of which are Davityan Liana Vemyrivna (oh, who is that?) and Petrovskyi Oleksandr Volodymyrovych (yes, that same one).

This company is involved in trading stolen grain in the occupied territories: the grain was moved across Russian territory, after which it entered the export chain and was shipped to the EU and Middle Eastern countries. Both structures tied to Vemir Davityan and those of his father-in-law Oleksandr Haidar were used.

Haidar appears as the manager and beneficiary of a number of companies, including Lux-07, Logistic-VVN, Logistic VVN Group, Norma-Plus 777, Zaporizhzhia Distribution Company, Logistic Auto 2017, Grain Car, Avim Construction, Avim Estate, Hermes Trade Company, STK Avangard, Gracia 2019, Ukrfoodcompany, Trans Balance and Ukrbuilding-company. It is through this corporate contour that management of assets linked to Davityan continues, and Haidar himself is called the person to whom a significant portion of Ukrainian business closed after Vemir Davityan left the country.

There is another interesting story — with Citrus. In August 2025 year Zaporizhzhia entrepreneur Artur Hatunok, owner of the Yabluka chain, acquired the electronics store chain Citrus; the deal is estimated at about 700 million hryvnias, with Citrus passing to the new owner with debts of thirteen million.

The deal is extremely murky — there is a persistent version that the real money for the purchase was provided by Vemir Davityan, with whom Hatunok was previously connected through the Yabluka chain and the Pool&Beach complex in Zaporizhzhia. Hatunok acted as the formal buyer, while Davityan remained in the shadows and got the opportunity to return extracted capital to Ukraine in the form of a legal retail asset.