‘They don’t fly or quickly fall’: Ministry of Defense of Ukraine paid 16.5 million euros to a company owned by a former member of parliament for questionable drones

The Ukrainian Ministry of Defense paid an advance of 650 million hryvnias (16.5 million euros) to the family company of former Ukrainian Member of Parliament, Borislav Rozenblat, for drones of questionable quality. Furthermore, the company only delivered 1 out of the 55 ordered UAVs within the stipulated deadline.

This information is disclosed in an investigation by Bihus.info.

In December 2022, the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense signed an agreement worth 807 million hryvnias (20.4 million euros) for the purchase of 55 “HAWK” unmanned aerial vehicle systems and paid an advance of 650 million hryvnias.

The company tasked with manufacturing these UAVs by mid-August was “Ukrainian Aviation Systems,” which is partially owned by the wife of former Ukrainian MP Borislav Rozenblat, a figure in a high-profile “amber case.” Rozenblat himself referred to this project as his “brainchild.”

The company was obligated to deliver all 55 systems to the customer by August 15, but they only managed to deliver one. A month before the contract’s completion, the manufacturer organized training for the drone operators. Military personnel told journalists that three-quarters of the flight attempts were unsuccessful, and the drone could only be launched properly towards the end.

Rozenblat himself observed the launches and assured the UAV operators that failures were normal since they were supposedly using “training models.” He claimed that all shortcomings would be addressed by the time the training was completed and the order delivered.

On August 14, one day before the contract was due, it was revealed that only four out of the 55 ordered drones were ready. The first drone took off during a test flight but subsequently lost its signal. Rozenblat speculated that it had overheated. During the second flight, the drone took off but failed to land properly as its wings were detached, and a crack appeared on the nose. Rozenblat attributed the detached wings to a “model feature,” even though there was no mention of such a feature in the documentation.

The Ministry of Defense’s commission refused to accept these UAVs.

The second complex failed to take off, as did the fourth. The third complex managed to take off and complete a flight to some extent.

The manufacturer insisted that the complex was developed in cooperation with foreign partners and was primarily composed of imported components. Approval for use in the Armed Forces of Ukraine for HAWK was granted in 2017 by the then-Minister of Defense, Stepan Poltorak.