Security Service of Ukraine and State Bureau of Investigation came with searches to Foreign Minister of Internal Affairs of Ukraine

The Security Service of Ukraine and the State Bureau of Investigation conducted searches on the property of Arsen Avakov, former Minister of Internal Affairs of Ukraine.

Source: Avakov in a comment to Ukrainska Pravda

Details: The case concerns the purchase of French Airbus helicopters.

Quote: "The search regarding the helicopter accident was finished. [Law enforcement officers – ed.] looked at the Airbus contracts from six years ago. They found nothing, obviously. The contracts were approved by the government and the parliament. They were conducted correctly, even if it was meaningless. They worked out the version on a formality."

Background:

• On 29 May 2018, the governments of Ukraine and France signed an agreement in Paris with a total value of 552 million euros on official support in creating a unified system of air force security and civil protection.
• According to the terms of the agreement, the French side was to supply Ukraine with 37 Airbus helicopters in two stages, and then another 18 helicopters. Of them, 21 helicopters are H225 models, rotorcraft with a carrying capacity of more than 10 tons.
• The Center for Transport Strategies noted that out of 55 French helicopters intended for purchase for the Ukrainian Ministry of Internal Affairs, 21 helicopters were already in use. 
• In the morning of 18 January 2023, a helicopter of the State Emergency Service crashed in Brovary, Kyiv Oblast. The senior leadership of the Ministry of Internal Affairs died as a result of the crash, including Denys Monastyrskyi, Head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, Yevhenii Yenin, Monastyrskyi’s first deputy, and Yurii Lubkovych, State Secretary of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. There are a total of 14 victims, including 1 child. The fallen helicopter was handed over to Ukraine by France in August 2020.
• The Security Service has launched an investigation into the causes of the helicopter crash in Brovary; the main theories of the investigation are violation of flight safety rules, technical malfunction and intentional actions.

Journalists fight on their own frontline. Support Ukrainska Pravda or become our patron!