Plant of former Ukrainian official receives US$48 million for air defence repair from state
Pravda Ukraine
Dmytro Pliatsuk, the deputy defence minister of Ukraine under the regime of former pro-Russian President Viktor Yanukovych, and his Nizhyn Repair Plant received almost UAH 2 billion (about US$48 million) from the state for air defence repairs in 2022-2024.
Source: investigation by Ukrainska Pravda: How a top official of Yanukovych’s defence ministry who destroyed the defence industrial base profits from the war
Details: The Nizhyn Repair Plant, which was engaged in the repair of military engineering equipment – earthmoving machines, amphibious assault vehicles, and cranes – went bankrupt after Yanukovych came to power.
In 2015, Pliatsuk founded the Defence Technologies company, and starting in 2016, he began to buy out the bankrupt Nizhyn Repair Plant in parts.
At the time of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, most of the Nizhyn Repair Plant was owned by Pliatsuk’s company.
One of Pliatsuk’s own companies is called LLC Nizhyn Repair Plant.
UP’s sources in law enforcement allege that Pliatsuk himself left the country on 23 February 2022, the eve of the full-scale Russian invasion, and returned only six months later, in September 2022.
At the same time, UP’s sources among border guards say that Pliatsuk is in the process of leaving the country as a man with a reservation from mobilisation with a driver who was also initially going on business trips and later received a second-grade disability.
Ukrainska Pravda journalists have also spotted Pliatsuk in the government quarter, which now requires a special pass to access.
UP’s sources in political circles report that Ihor Kopytin, the secretary of an MP from the Servant of the People faction, ordered such a pass for Pliatsuk. Kopytin is the chairman of the Subcommittee on Defence Industry of the Verkhovna Rada (Ukrainian Parliament) Committee on National Security, Defence and Intelligence.
In addition, in 2021, one of Kopytin’s assistants even had a power of attorney from Pliatsuk’s company to represent him and sign documents in negotiations with a Turkish defence company.
Quote from UP: “Ukrainska Pravda sources in the defence sector claim that it was during this period [when he was seen in the government quarter – ed.] that the decision was made to award another state contract to Pliatsuk’s company, the repair of 10 anti-aircraft missile systems. The average cost of repairing one anti-aircraft missile system is about UAH 20 million, or half a million US dollars. At the same time, Pliatsuk received another larger contract from the state in 2024.
Several unrelated sources directly involved in the management of the defence industrial base reported that they were pressured by various officials to cooperate with Dmytro Pliatsuk’s company…
Ukrainska Pravda sources in law enforcement say that Pliatsuk, using his connections, receives and executes state contracts for the repair of air defence systems without disclosing information about the origin of [his company’s] documentation and spare parts.”
Details: The Ukraine’s Ministry of Defence, in response to a request from Ukrainska Pravda, said that during 2022-2024, the state signed UAH 1,982,514,509 (about US$47 million) worth of contracts with Pliatsuk’s company.
Quote from UP: “In general, we’ve documented a number of Pliatsuk’s visits to the closed government quarter during 2024. Ukrainska Pravda sources in law enforcement say that Pliatsuk comes to the meetings of the defence committee of the Ukrainian parliament. Pliatsuk is seen at the defence committee meetings regularly and much more often than other representatives of private companies.”
Pliatsuk’s presence at the Ukrainian parliament committee meetings may indicate that since returning to the country from Vienna six months after the start of the full-scale invasion, he has managed to significantly increase his influence on the Ukrainian defence industrial base and is currently repairing air defence systems in much larger quantities than state-owned companies.
Pliatsuk was appointed as deputy minister of defence in 2012, after Yanukovych appointed Dmitry Salamatin, a former Russian citizen, as minister of defence.
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