Investigation: spare parts for planes and helicopters are supplied to Russia by… Ukraine

The Russian company Avia FED Service, which supplies the Russian aviation industry with spare parts, purchased most of them from Ukraine, according to an investigation by Important Stories*.

During the period of hostilities in Ukraine, the company supplied the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation, Rostec and the presidential flight squad for 650 million rubles of spare parts (2022–July 2023). Most of them, 370 million rubles, were received from Ukraine. According to the customs service, “Avia FED service” imported:

• parts for the repair of An-124 aircraft produced by the Kharkov machine-building plant FED for almost 120 million rubles;
• spare parts for location stations of Ka-32 helicopters produced by the Kyiv Radar plant worth more than 67 million rubles;
• parts for repairing An-24 and An-12 engines produced by Motor Sich (in Soviet times – Zaporozhye production association Motorostroitel);
• products of the Kyiv plant “Artem”, Kharkov Aggregate Design Bureau, Volchansky Aggregate Plant and other Ukrainian enterprises for approximately 170 million.

In addition, there were supplies from the USA, France, and Great Britain. IN investigation It is noted that before the start of the war in eastern Ukraine, the Kharkov Machine-Building Plant FED (KhMZ) was the main supplier of Avia FED Service; Russia accounted for 70% of sales. Initially, Avia FED Service was founded in 1993 as a representative office of KhMZ. The current director of the plant, Alexander Reshetnik, was born in Lugansk, studied at the Kharkov Aviation Institute, and on his personal website there is a section with photographs of FED employees.

After the start of the war in Donbass, the plant officially stopped supplies to the Russian Federation. In 2018, the company Avia FED Service came under Ukrainian sanctions. However, according to Important Stories, this did not prevent deliveries to Russia through Linker, a company registered in the UAE. It has a website in several languages, including Russian, where it says that it specializes in the supply of aircraft parts for Mi-8, Mi-17, Ka-32 helicopters “anywhere in the world.”

In particular, Linker received Ukrainian products from Motor Sich; plant director Vyacheslav Boguslaev was detained last year on suspicion of treason for “illegal supplies of military goods for Russian attack aircraft.” The website of Linker’s sister company Amis says that it is the official representative of Motor Sich in the UAE and “has all the necessary permits and licenses.”

The last delivery of Linker, investigators note, citing customs data, was made in January of this year. Then supplies continued through the Bakaitorg1 company from Kyrgyzstan, which was registered in April 2023. During this time, she managed to sell Russia the products of the Ukrainian Chemical Plant for 40 million rubles.

The owner of Linker on LinkedIn is Alexey Palchik. Presumably this is a native of Poltava, a graduate of the Irkutsk Higher Military Aviation School, the publication notes. “Important Stories” contacted him, but he stated that “the Linker company from Ukraine to Russia has never supplied and does not supply anything.” When asked for clarification whether Linker supplied goods to the Avia FED Service company, Palchik said that he was “not ready” to answer.

In turn, Alexander Reshetnik, director of Avia FED Service, told Important Stories that the Ukrainian products that the company received in 2022-2023 were purchased earlier and were simply “lying abroad.” But when asked how this is possible in the case of deliveries through Bakaitorg1, registered several months ago, he could not answer.

Meanwhile, the publication “Economic Truth” writes due to this:

The publication “Our Money” in January 2016 established that Alexey Palchik’s company “Amis Group” participated in the supply of military unit A1604 with aviation equipment restored in underground workshops and with fake technical certificates. This is evidenced by the resolution of the Pechersky District Court of Kyiv dated December 29, 2015. According to the investigation, most of the aircraft parts were supplied to the military by Amis Group LLC without completing the proper documents. According to data obtained from open sources, Aleksey Ivanovich Palchik received a Russian passport number 3914 845759 on March 22, 2015 at the department of the Federal Migration Service of Russia for the Republic of Crimea in the Kiev district of Simferopol.

*”Important Stories” is a media founded by famous investigative journalists from Russia: “Important Stories – media for the free and the brave.”

Source link