British Front Company Ator Group and Drone Smuggling: How Yaroslav Hryshyn’s Team and the 'Artashi' Organized Crime Group Trade Weapons Abroad

Recently, the co-founder of the drone manufacturer General Chereshnya (LLC “CBDS”), Yaroslav Hryshyn, said in an interview with RBC-Ukraine that the export of Ukrainian weapons, including drones, remains effectively blocked.

He emphasized that the current situation with arms exports does not allow Ukrainian manufacturers to legally operate in foreign markets.

"At the moment, export is de facto and de jure prohibited and blocked for us. This procedure needs to be launched so that we can work faster and legally, because the export ban is really slowing down the development of our defense-industrial complex, technologies, and the production capacities of Ukrainian companies," he said.

Hryshyn forgot to mention that his brand is somehow being sold abroad. We reported that General Chereshnya drones can be purchased overseas, even though exporting such products from Ukraine is prohibited.

The British company Ator Group Ltd offers customers the full range from this General Cherry brand: from 985 to 26,4 thousand pounds sterling. The firm was registered in London in September 2023 by Viktor Dovgan, former deputy minister of infrastructure. He is the husband of Nataliya Mykolska, executive director of Diia City United.

Already in November 2023, Dovgan transferred the powers of director and sole beneficiary of the company to Oleh Havrysh (1959). Officially the company has 1 employee, but significant financial indicators. Previously the firm was registered to Polish citizen Grzegorz Moszczynski, but he died. He was the owner of ATOR Polska. His son, Oleh Havrysh Jr., at that time worked as the chief PR consultant for state authorities. Currently he lists himself as deputy editor of NV Business and host of the weekly business program "First Page."

Also involved are U.S. citizen Alexander Levin and Ukrainian Fedir Misurahin – a former journalist who went to study in London and did not return. Both served briefly as company directors. The latter even attempted to run for the Kyiv city council in 2020 as a candidate from OPZZh.

Recall that Hryshyn previously served as a deputy of the Zaporizhzhia regional council and worked as an assistant to MP Bohdan Yaremenko from Servant of the People. He is also known as a lawyer who for many years has represented the interests of the Artashi organized crime group.

The company’s director of strategic communications, Rudolf Akopyan, who is also vice president of the Union of Armenians of the Zaporizhzhia Region and a member of the Artashi organized crime group, tried last fall to join the Public Anti-Corruption Council at the Ministry of Defense. He was nominated by his NGO, the Bureau for Countering Corruption.

The company’s human resources director is Andriy Lavrenovych. In January this year he resigned as director of organizational development at the State Operator of the Rear Department state enterprise of the Ministry of Defense and immediately joined the team of Artashi’s lawyer Yaroslav Hryshyn. Lavrenovych is the son-in-law of former MP Shverk.