The ‘Mindich tapes’ mention the maker of Flamingo rockets — the company Fire Point

The drone and missile manufacturer “Flamingo,” the Ukrainian company Fire Point, appears on recordings of negotiations among participants in the corruption scheme organized by Tymur Mindich.

This was reported on Telegram by Holos party MP Yaroslav Zheleznyak.

A fragment of the taped discussions about missile manufacturers from NABU’s recordings was read aloud by a SAPO prosecutor at the court hearing on selecting a preventive measure for Ihor Fursenko, a suspect in the Energoatom contract corruption case.

According to Zheleznyak, the recordings refer to a probable co-owner of Fire Point, Ihor Khmelev, who is called “Shmel” (“Bumblebee”) in the case materials. Khmelev has long been friends with Mindich; the business of Mindich’s wife, Kateryna Weber—Kameron, a branded-clothing retailer—is registered to him.

The MP also mentioned another co-owner of the company and engineer, Denys Shtyler (on the tapes, “Elektronik”).

“It is precisely his childhood friend, Yehor Skalyha, who is the official owner in the registries. So don’t look there for ties to Kvartal 95. It’s just a coincidence in the industry,” Zheleznyak said.

Meanwhile, against the backdrop of the Mindich corruption scandal, the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) announced strikes on targets in Russia with Flamingo missiles.

On Tuesday, the day after the announcement of the high-profile corruption probe, the General Staff said that “overall we are increasing the effectiveness of the use of domestic long-range strike assets: Neptune missiles, Flamingo missiles, as well as rocket drones.”

And today the General Staff reported on its social media about strikes on dozens of targets in the Russian Federation and in Russian-occupied territories of Ukraine using Flamingo missiles, Liutyi drones, and the Bars hybrid missile-drone.

Previously, the agency had not reported the use of Flamingo.