For almost 20 years, the company "Ukrainian Helicopters" used combat helicopters belonging to the Ministry of Defense and the National Guard for commercial purposes, earning money from international contracts. Even after the start of the full-scale war, the company delayed returning the equipment, continuing to generate profits.
For almost 20 years, the company "Ukrainian Helicopters" used combat helicopters belonging to the Ministry of Defense and the National Guard. Formally – under lease, actually – as their own, earning money on international contracts and peacekeeping missions. The most cynical thing in this story is not only the corrupt connections or the meager rent, but also the fact that even with the beginning of a full-scale war, the company did not return the equipment to the state in a timely manner. Despite the President's decree and the military's demand, "Ukrainian Helicopters" delayed the process, postponed deadlines and continued to profit from the blood of Ukrainians, using state helicopters for their own commercial purposes. UNN investigated how this scheme worked and why it has not yet been destroyed.
How the "Ukrainian Helicopters" lease scam began
The beginning of this story is June 2003. It was then that the private company "Ukrainian Helicopters" leased 16 combat helicopters (and the fact that the machines were combat ones is an important fact). These were Mi-8MT(MTV) helicopters that were on the balance sheet of military unit A0105 of the Ground Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
Officially, the company leased them "for aviation work and transportation." In fact, for commercial use in UN peacekeeping missions and private contracts abroad.
The permission to transfer combat vehicles for private lease was signed by the then Minister of Defense Yevhen Marchuk, and the agreement itself by the Commander of the Ground Forces, Lieutenant General Valeriy Frolov. Subsequently, this signature on the helicopter lease agreement became fatal in Valeriy Frolov's career. After all, as the then Minister of Defense Anatoliy Hrytsenko later stated, Frolov was dismissed "for signing a dangerous and illegal contract that allowed a private company to use combat equipment for commercial purposes."
Subsequently, "Ukrainian Helicopters" received another 12 aircraft from the Ministry of Internal Affairs, including the National Guard, some of which were transferred through the state enterprise "UATP "Khoriv-Avia", which, through a sublease agreement, transferred the helicopters to "Ukrainian Helicopters". These include:
- Mi-8MTV helicopter No. 94915 – sublease agreement No. UV.ARV-12-004 dated 27.01.2010;
- Mi-8MTV helicopter No. 95127 – agreement No. UV.ARV-12-006 of the same date;
- Mi-8MT helicopter No. 94614 – agreement No. 2/12-FS dated 03.04.2012, initially for 8 years, with a rent of UAH 213,100/month without VAT.
Thus, the company, which does not have its own fleet, managed 26 state combat helicopters.
Since 2003, the lease term has been extended 18 times through additional agreements, which each time softened the conditions for the lessee even more. The last extension took place in 2021 – a few months before the start of the full-scale war.
Helicopter rental cost "as for their own"
The conditions under which "Ukrainian Helicopters" leased the helicopters became a real litmus test for the system. After all, these conditions were scandalously favorable for the lessee and unjustifiably useless for Ukraine. Thus, instead of the market price, the cost of monthly rent at the beginning of the contract was 30 thousand hryvnias per board.
During 2012-2021, the rent increased to 212 thousand hryvnias per board. And although compared to 30 thousand hryvnias, this cost does not seem so absurd, it was still meager. After all, "Ukrainian Helicopters" performed international contracts and UN missions on leased equipment. Where the average operating rate of a Mi-8 helicopter is from $3,000 to $5,000 per flight hour. One helicopter in such missions usually has 150-200 flight hours per month. It turns out that the profit from one board reaches 450 thousand dollars per month, or approximately 15 million UAH.
Profits on blood
The most interesting thing began on December 31, 2021, when the main lease agreement expired. "Ukrainian Helicopters" continued to use the equipment illegally for several more months.
Moreover, after the start of the full-scale invasion in 2022, when the front literally begged for aviation, "Ukrainian Helicopters" were in no hurry to return the leased equipment to the state.
On March 7, 2022, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy issued a decree on the recall of the national contingent and personnel from international operations – in essence, a political imperative to return people and equipment home. In parallel, the terms of the agreement itself obliged the lessee to return the aircraft no later than 10 days from the date of expiration of the lease term and to the place determined by the lessor, with the signing of acceptance and transfer acts within the same 10-day period.
Despite the President's decree and the "10-day" terms of the agreement, "Ukrainian Helicopters" continued to use the aircraft and delayed their return. Only in March-April 2022 did the Ministry of Defense receive back 15 of the 16 machines (board 95002 was lost in a crash in 2018).
As UNN journalists were told by their own sources in the Ministry of Defense, the returned helicopters were worn out, without weapons and some standard systems – virtually unsuitable for immediate use in combat.
These were empty boards – without machine guns, without sights, without standard equipment. In fact, civilian helicopters that had to be restored from scratch
– said one of the officers of the Ministry of Defense.
As the investigation later stated, weapons and military systems were dismantled, and some machines had exhausted engine and transmission resources. Some helicopters arrived after long flights in sandy conditions in Africa, which caused significant wear and tear. The state received the machines in a condition that did not allow their immediate use at the front – in fact, fragments of military equipment that had to be repaired at public expense.
After the expiration of the lease term, when the company was supposed to return the state boards, "Ukrainian Helicopters" continued to use them for several more months without legal grounds. During this period, from January to April 2022, the total accrued rent exceeded UAH 25.6 million. Subsequently, the Commercial Court of Kyiv recognized the fact of illegal use of 16 combat helicopters after the expiration of the agreements and in June 2023 ruled to collect UAH 25.3 million in penalties and UAH 760 thousand in court fees from the company. At the same time, the Ministry of Defense demanded more than UAH 51 million, but the claim was only partially satisfied.
In August 2024, the Supreme Court upheld this decision, finally recognizing the fact of illegal use of state combat vehicles by "Ukrainian Helicopters" after the expiration of the lease term.
Can UAH 25 million be considered an adequate "price" for months of delay, when Ukrainians were dying at the front every day, and state Mi-8s continued to carry out commercial agreements in other countries, bringing multi-million dollar revenues to a private company?
And even after that, "Ukrainian Helicopters" continued to operate abroad. Although after the Decree of the President of Ukraine, the company was supposed to return all leased boards, including those belonging to the National Guard, this did not happen. So, when the most brutal phase of fighting was going on in Ukraine, ten National Guard helicopters, which were supposed to be returned to the state for defense, continued to fly in Mali, Somalia, Congo and other African countries – under the flag of UN peacekeeping missions.
The story of delaying the return of equipment became obvious to law enforcement officers. in June 2022, the Security Service of Ukraine detained Volodymyr Tkachenko, the general director of PJSC "Airline "Ukrainian Helicopters". He was notified of suspicion of not returning ten leased combat helicopters, with a total value of about half a million US dollars, and of abuse of office.
Despite this, some of the National Guard's equipment continued to be operated by the company. Only in 2023 did the courts oblige "Ukrainian Helicopters" and SE "Khoriv-Avia" to return the helicopters to the National Guard in good condition and pay more than 200 thousand hryvnias in fines and penalties. And yet, according to the Ministry of Defense, several boards are still not returned or are technically faulty.
The war revealed the scale of the corrupt facade of "Ukrainian Helicopters"
The full-scale war destroyed the long-standing corrupt facade of "Ukrainian Helicopters". Mi-8 helicopters, which were supposed to save the lives of Ukrainian soldiers, became a tool for earning money for a narrow circle of people. While the army was collecting every helicopter for the front around the world, 26 Ukrainian combat vehicles continued to fly for dollars in Mali and Congo.
When the country needed every board for evacuation, reconnaissance and support of special forces, state helicopters brought profits to their lessees – money earned on the blood of Ukrainians.
According to market estimates, the company's total revenue from operating state equipment during the war exceeded $100 million. The state, however, received only a few tens of millions of hryvnias in penalties – a symbolic punishment for twenty years of abuse.
