Case description
The National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) and the Specialised Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (SAPO) suspect officials of the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) and the director of a private company of abuse in the development of the AFU Operational Command Centre automated system “DZVIN”.
A total of UAH 722 million in state budget funds was allocated for the project, of which UAH 246 million was allegedly misappropriated. Suspects include:
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Radion Tymoshenko — former Deputy Chief of the General Staff of the AFU, Lieutenant General;
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Volodymyr Rapko — former Chief of the AFU Signal Corps, Major General;
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Viktor Artykhovych — former Head of the Automation Development Directorate of the AFU General Staff, Colonel;
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Yurii Pastukhov — Director of Everest Limited LLC and principal contractor.
According to the investigation, in 2016 the Ministry of Defence signed a contract for the development of the system with a private company that had no prior experience in creating software. Over four years, the technical specifications were amended 13 times, which allowed the project cost to increase by UAH 300 million. Without sufficient justification, the number of prototype sets was increased from four to twelve, resulting in additional costs of UAH 115 million for documentation revisions.
NABU and SAPO established that the developed system:
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does not meet the technical specifications;
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is incompatible with NATO protocols;
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is not integrated with military systems;
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out of 200 planned information and calculation tasks, only 10 were implemented.
Despite these significant shortcomings, at the end of 2022 the “DZVIN” system was officially accepted into service by the AFU. Already in 2024, instead of addressing its critical deficiencies, additional funding was proposed for further work on the system. This may indicate not only attempts to conceal previous corruption offences but also the intent to continue them.
The actions of the suspects have been qualified under Part 4 and Part 5 of Article 191, Part 2 of Article 364-1, Part 3 of Article 425, and Part 4 of Article 426-1 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine.
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In 2021, journalists from Bihus.Info reported that the Ministry of Defence had commissioned Everest Limited LLC to develop the AFU’s command and control system. Four years and UAH 600 million in budget funds were spent on the project. However, an audit revealed such critical flaws in “DZVIN” that its implementation in the army could be not only impractical but potentially impossible.
The audit also identified specific officials who made project decisions and signed relevant documents. Formally, the contracting authority was the Ministry of Defence, which paid for the project, but the process was managed by officials of the AFU General Staff.
The contract was signed by then-Chief of the AFU Signal Corps, General Volodymyr Rapko. The idea to triple the number of sets and inflate the budget by an additional UAH 255 million originated in a report from the Automation Development Directorate, at the time headed by Colonel Viktor Artykhovych.
Both Rapko and Artykhovych signed the acceptance certificates for all stages of the “DZVIN” system development, with the project executed, delivered, and accepted in phases — except for the final stage, which was never completed.
