Automatically translated version. May contain inaccuracies compared to the original.
Theft of humanitarian aid in Zaporizhia: "NABU agent" accused top OPU officials of organizing the scheme
Yevhen Shevchenko, who calls himself an "unsalaried agent" of the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU), said the agency received information that top officials from the Office of the President and Servant of the People may be involved in large-scale embezzlement of humanitarian aid in Zaporizhia region.
He wrote this on his page.
Specifically mentioned are:
Head of the Office of the President Andriy Yermak;
Deputy Head of the OPU Kyrylo Tymoshenko;
People's deputy and head of the Servant of the People faction in the Verkhovna Rada David Arakhamia;
"friend and partner" of David Arakhamia, Davityan Vemir. Yevhen Shevchenko claims that, according to the investigation, he is the direct organizer of the scheme to embezzle and sell almost all the humanitarian aid that was supplied to Zaporizhia region.
In addition, the "NABU agent" asserts that local authorities were involved in the scheme, but they were only technical implementers, namely:
Head of the Zaporizhia Regional Military Administration Oleksandr Starukh;
Deputy Head of the Zaporizhia RMA Zlata Nekrasova;
Deputy of the Zaporizhia City Council Viktor Shcherbyna;
Secretary of the Zaporizhia City Council Anatoliy Kurtev.
Details of the scheme
Yevhen Shevchenko said he cannot publicly disclose details and facts of the crime because of the secrecy of the pre-trial investigation.
"However, it can be said for sure that one of the suspected officials (whose premises were searched and documents about the sale of humanitarian aid were seized), namely Deputy Head of the Zaporizhia RMA Zlata Nekrasova, obtained her high-responsibility position precisely with the approval of Tymoshenko and Yermak, and no one other than David Arakhamia lobbied her appointment," he wrote.
He also states that currently Kyrylo Tymoshenko's wife lives in Vienna, where, together with a nanny, the son of Zlata Nekrasova and the family of Vemir Davityan also live.
Response from Ukrainian authorities
Advisor to the head of the OPU Kyrylo Tymoshenko replied under Yevhen Shevchenko's post and called his words a "plant." He added that his family lives in Ukraine.
"My wife, like my child, lives in Ukraine, not in Vienna or anywhere else. That's first. Second — your information plants about embezzlement, someone's involvement in something without any evidentiary basis — are nothing more than a simple and stupid plant. Like the information about Vienna," he wrote.
What does NABU say?
At the time of writing, the agency had not commented on Yevhen Shevchenko's statements.
What led up to this?
30 August, information appeared on the Security Service of Ukraine's website that the SBU and NABU are investigating possible illegal appropriation of humanitarian aid by top officials in Zaporizhia region. At that time, agency employees conducted searches in the city council, the RMA, warehouse premises, and at the addresses of the suspected persons' residences.
During the searches, the following were found:
substances resembling narcotics; they were sent for examination;
unregistered firearms and ammunition for them;
a large amount of cash.
After the searches, Yevhen Shevchenko said that officials were stealing all the humanitarian aid that was supplied to Zaporizhia and the region, and then selling it in the Silpo and ATB retail chains.
According to him, the following were allegedly involved: Oleksandr Starukh, Zlata Nekrasova, Viktor Shcherbyna, and Anatoliy Kurtev. He claims that over half a year the following were stolen:
22 sea containers;
389 railcars;
220 cargo trucks.
Secretary of the Zaporizhia City Council Anatoliy Kurtev said that information about the "theft of hundreds of tons of humanitarian aid in Zaporizhia" is political commissioning intended to smear local authorities.
The ATB corporation also officially stated that information about the sale of stolen humanitarian goods from Zaporizhia through its chain's stores is not true.
Representatives of the Silpo retail chain responded to Shevchenko's accusations and stated that humanitarian aid products are not sold in their stores.
"We do not sell humanitarian aid in Silpo; we sell only what we officially purchase at market prices from suppliers in Ukraine and abroad," the statement said.
Document: PDF proof of the original version of the news item "Крадіжка гуманітарки в Запоріжжі: "агент НАБУ" звинуватив топчиновників ОП в організації схеми". It records the publication content at the moment of the first scan, the preservation date and the source: ANTIKOR.