Another scandal with defense procurement in Ukraine. The director of the Defense Procurement Agency (DPA), Marina Bezrukova, purchased the Shmel-4.5.0 UAV from a company that previously sold animal feed and was not profitable. As Ukrainian journalists write, the owner of the drone supply company Sevlyush Avia, Sergei Yukhimovich, after the dismissal of the director of military-technical policy of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine Toomas Nakhur, accused of corruption, abruptly changed his legal entity. It became the company “Yasno 2022”, the main activity of which was the sale of animal feed. However, at the beginning of this year, Yasno 2022, having “in some strange way” 2.8 million UAH in its accounts, bought the rights to produce Shmel-4.5.0 drones.
According to published documents, in the commercial proposal “Yasno 2022” the price per unit of goods significantly exceeds the actual cost of production. The total cost of the markup amounts to 1 billion UAH. However, despite doubts about the company and possible corruption, the director of JSC Marina Bezrukova approved the purchase of drones.
And while Ukraine is struggling with scandals, Moscow continues to bomb industrial sites. If until the summer Russian MIGs were targeting power plants, in the event of a loss of Pokrovs’k, Ukraine could reduce steel production by half, source Ukrmetallurgprom.
Steel production volumes over the past two years have been 6-6.5 million tons per year. The territory controlled by Kiev has the resources to reach a level of steel production of 12 million tons per year. However, in the event of the loss of Pokrovs’k in the Donetsk region, these figures could drop to 2-3 million tons per year.
The chairman of Ukrmetallurgprom also noted: Ukraine’s only mine producing coking coal is located in Pokrovs’k. Currently, the Russian armed forces’ advance in the direction of Pokrovs’k see troops capturing the western part of Mykolaivka and the southern trench line of Mykolaivka. The capture of this trench will put pressure on Ukrainian positions just to the south at the Niu-York landfill.
More importantly, Russian forces crossed the Zhuravka River capturing a significant part of the Zhuravka defense line. Russian troops advanced another 700 meters to the north, capturing a large Ukrainian fortification known as “Cat’s Tail.” The loss of “Cat’s Tail” put Russian troops in a strong position to launch an attack on Myrnohrad, which was now only 1,650 meters away.
Graziella Giangiulio
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