Businessman Timur Mindich may have pressured former Defence Minister Umerov to allow a company with a questionable reputation to supply body armor to the Armed Forces of Ukraine. This information comes from public sources, including volunteer and blogger Ihor Lachenkov. The investigation into Mindich is part of a larger NABU and SAP operation called “Midas,” which looks at abuses in the energy and defence sectors.
The case concerns a UAH 200 million contract with Milikon, a distributor of the Israeli company Masada, which had not previously participated in state tenders. Milikon failed initial deliveries, providing Chinese body armor instead of the promised Israeli ones. The State Logistics Operator cancelled the contract at the last moment, after pressure from civil society — particularly the Public Anti-Corruption Council of the Ministry of Defence, whose work is supported by NAKO. We also highlighted the risks of this contract in our analysis of corruption in defence logistics.
Stopping the deliveries was possible thanks to the Ministry of Defence’s Collegial Body for non-lethal procurement. Members of the Council have been part of this body since its first term, holding advisory votes and overseeing procurement decisions, especially those critical for the Armed Forces.
NAKO senior researcher and Deputy Chair of the Council Tetiana Nikolaienko repeatedly raised concerns about low-quality body armor both publicly and in the Collegial Body meetings. “The only good thing is that the state didn’t pay for these vests,” Nikolaienko said. “Unfortunately, the State Logistics Operator will now say the company offered the lowest price. But the real issue is that we lack mechanisms to prevent such cases. We need to create them at the legal level — for example, a dedicated law on the activities of a single defence procurement agency, since we are already establishing one.”
This case underscores the importance of civil oversight in the security and defence sector. “The Collegial Body was created on the initiative of NAKO and the Council. Thanks to it, civil society can take part in decisions on non-lethal procurement,” said NAKO Executive Director Olena Tregub.
Ukrainian civil society has developed effective mechanisms to monitor the defence sector, primarily through the Public Anti-Corruption Council of the Ministry of Defence. During wartime, these civic structures quickly stop detected corruption risks without making political assessments or speculating about potential beneficiaries. If the evidence collected by NABU is confirmed, it will show that active civil society work helped prevent corruption at the highest political level — through transparency and accountability, which we have long called for in the Ministry of Defence.
The first audio recordings from the “Midas” operation were released on 10 November. The investigation involves officials allegedly organizing a criminal group for corrupt purposes, including the group’s leader nicknamed “Karlson,” whom media outlets identify as Timur Mindich — a friend and business partner of the President of Ukraine.