He demanded the purchase of ‘bogus’ body armor: a journalist described how Mindich drew Umerov into money-skimming schemes

It has become known exactly how businessman Tymur Mindich, who is close to Volodymyr Zelensky, influenced Rustem Umerov when the latter served as defense minister. Anti-corruption bodies—particularly a SAPO prosecutor—alleged this influence yesterday.

Details were disclosed on Facebook by journalist Tetyana Nykolaienko.

The reporter published part of the prosecutor’s suspicion regarding influence over Umerov.

According to her, the minister was pressured to procure body armor from a specific manufacturer; the vests were not delivered on time and turned out to be substandard.

“The story was as follows: in the winter, the State Rear Operator (SRO) announced a tender worth 1.6 billion for 75,000 body armor vests, and a no-name fly-by-night outfit called ‘Krepost Zakhystu’ (‘Fortress of Protection’) showed up. They came and won with the lowest price. The only reason they weren’t contracted was sheer chance—the company didn’t have a license to sell. But Ukrainian manufacturers did have such licenses. And instead of supporting a Ukrainian manufacturer, the SRO canceled the tender because it chose not the interests of Ukrainian producers, but those of a specific Mindich. A month later, the SRO announced a new tender—this time only for 200 million. It was won by another fly-by-night—‘Milikon,’ purchased two days before the tender, with a sample vest taken from ‘Krepost Zakhystu.’ Convenient, isn’t it? What happened next? But of course. The company blew the first delivery batches; what arrived in Ukraine were not Israeli vests, but Chinese garbage—easily penetrated and crookedly stitched,” Nykolaienko wrote.

Even after all this, the contract stubbornly wasn’t canceled.

“An entire former defense minister didn’t dare ignore Mindich,” the journalist concluded.

As a reminder, yesterday Umerov denied that any other persons influenced his work at the Ministry of Defense.

He is currently in Turkey on a working visit, and anti-corruption officials doubt he will return to Ukraine amid the Mindich scandal.