Position: former head of the Automation Development Department of the General Staff of the Armed Forces.
Sphere of corrupt activity: military.
Region of corruption activity: all of Ukraine.
Qualification: Part 5, Article 191 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine.
Status: at large.
Case story: in February 2025, the National Anti-Corruption Bureau and the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office reported suspicions to former Deputy Chief of the General Staff Radian Tymoshenko, former Chief of the Signal Troops of the Armed Forces Volodymyr Rapko, and Colonel Viktor Artikhovich in the case of the automated system "Dzvin".
The SAPO and NABU have exposed a large-scale corruption scheme in the defense sector, due to which the state lost over UAH 246 million. This concerns the embezzlement of budget funds during the creation of the automated system of the Operational Command Center of the Armed Forces of Ukraine "Dzvin".
Among the suspects: former Deputy Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Lieutenant General; former Chief of the Signal Troops of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Major General; former Head of the Automation Development Department of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Colonel; director of a private company - the main executor of the contract.
According to the investigation, in 2016, the Ministry of Defense signed a contract for the development of the system with a company that had no experience in creating either troop control systems or specialized software. Over 4 years of research and development work, the technical specifications for the system were illegally changed 13 times, which increased the cost of the work by 300 million UAH, and reduced the functionality of the system by dozens of times. More than 115 million UAH was spent on unjustified documentation corrections alone.
As the SAPO and NABU found out, the developed system does not meet the technical requirements at all: from incompatibility with NATO protocols to lack of integration with other military systems. During the investigation, detectives and prosecutors encountered attempts to hinder the investigation: the individuals involved in the scheme began to hide key documentation regarding the financing and development of the project. After the investigation began, they accelerated the work and even modernized the system for free, trying to make it more similar to the original design. However, due to fundamental errors in the architecture, further development of the "Dzvin" system is impossible.
As reported by the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU), four suspects were informed of suspicions of violating Part 5 of Article 191 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine.
On March 11, 2025, the High Anti-Corruption Court applied a preventive measure in the form of a bail of UAH 2 million to Viktor Artikhovych.
The court also imposed the following obligations on Artikhovych: to appear at the first summons; not to leave Kyiv and Kyiv region without permission; to report any change of residence and work; to refrain from communicating with other suspects and witnesses; to surrender his foreign passports and wear an electronic bracelet. The obligations are valid until May 11.
Persons potentially involved in corruption schemes:
● former Deputy Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Lieutenant General;
● former chief of the Ukrainian Armed Forces' communications forces, major general;
● former head of the Automation Development Department of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, colonel;
● the director of a private company is the main executor of the contract.
Law enforcement officers traditionally do not name the suspects, but according to media reports, they are Deputy Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, General Radion Tymoshenko, General Volodymyr Rapko, and Colonel Viktor Artikhovich.
Assets: In his 2020 tax return, Artikhovich stated that he owns two land plots and a summer house. His wife Hanna also owns a land plot, a summer house, and an apartment.
Artikhovich and his wife also own two Subaru cars, the total cost of which is UAH 110,963.
The official's income for 2020 was UAH 1,208,306.
Artikhovich declared 50,000 UAH and 10,000 dollars in cash.
Persons who should have reacted: law enforcement agencies responded in a timely manner to criminal activity involving Artikhovich.
Scandals: In 2021, Bihus.info journalists reported that the Armed Forces of Ukraine spent 600 million hryvnias on the inoperable Dzvin-AS troop control system. They received a report from the State Audit Service confirming this.
It is noted that in 2016, the military ordered an armed forces management system from Everest Limited LLC. They spent 4 years and 600 million UAH of budget funds on the development. But the audit revealed in "Dzvin", that is the name the system was given, so many flaws and problems that its implementation in the army may be completely impractical and impossible, journalists indicate.
According to the contract, "Everest" was to perform the research and development work "Dzvin-AS". Its essence was to create an automated system of the operational management center of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. In simple words - a military control system. According to the final, "Everest" was to do two main things: write specialized military software and equip several control points (headquarters and vehicles) with equipment on which this software runs.
Before "Dzvin", the company "Everest" did not develop such software, its main activity was the sale of computers, accessories and ready-made software. Therefore, at first even the Ministry of Defense itself concluded that the company was not capable of doing the job. But after a few weeks they changed their minds sharply - if "Everest" would involve co-performers, then it was possible, and the contract was signed.
Work on the project lasted 4 years, during which time the estimate grew, as the customer and the contractor constantly changed the plan and scope of work.
In the summer of 2020, a few months before the project was handed over, the SBU initiated an audit, first a financial one, and then in the fall, a comprehensive audit of the project as a whole.
The general conclusion of the audit is as follows: the software does not meet the task set, therefore, further use of "Dzvin" may be impractical at all, and the purchase of as many as 12 complexes is not justified in any way, so accordingly, the overpayment of 255 million may have been unnecessary.
"Dzvin" is incompatible with similar systems of NATO member countries.
According to journalists, the audit established a specific list of persons who made decisions on the project and signed the relevant documents. Officially, the customer was the Ministry of Defense, which paid the money under the contract. However, from the beginning, the project was managed by officials of the General Staff.
The contract was signed with a company with no experience in developing such systems by General Volodymyr Rapko, then Chief of the Signal Troops of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. The idea to triple the number of kits and inflate the estimate by an extra UAH 255 million came from a report prepared by the Automation Development Department (then under the command of Colonel Viktor Artikhovich), reported to the General Staff by the Deputy Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, General Radion Tymoshenko, and approved by the then Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Viktor Muzhenko.
Also, Rapko and Artikhovich's signatures are under the Acceptance Certificates for all stages of the development of "Dzvin" (the project was implemented, submitted, and accepted in stages). On all but the last one, because the last one failed.
In parallel with the audit in October 2020, the deadline for submitting the project as a whole approached. The stage acceptance commission for the first time included several programmers from the specialized IT special unit of the Armed Forces (Center for Implementation and Support of Automated Operational (Combat) Control Systems of the Armed Forces, created on the basis of the volunteer project "Aeroreconnaissance").
Having identified a number of problems and shortcomings, they refused to sign the general protocol and drew up separate opinions. Because of this, the admission process was disrupted and the issue was put on hold for six months. "Everest" has already filed a lawsuit demanding to accept the work.
It is noted that the General Staff ignored journalists' requests for comment. The Ministry of Defense noted that they have transferred the audit materials to the State Bureau of Investigation and cannot make a decision on "Dzvin" until the investigation is completed (according to Bihus.Info, the Bureau currently has at least two criminal proceedings on "Dzvin").
As for "Everest", the company's director Volodymyr Pastukhov sometimes scheduled a meeting with journalists, then canceled it, and in the end the company sent a written response, the general content of which boils down to the fact that the information about the system's shortcomings is not true. Pastukhov refused to talk about "Dzvin" in more detail.
Sources:
https://www.pravda.com.ua/news/2021/03/16/7286800/
https://public.nazk.gov.ua/documents/6133526a-3135-4215-9d48-39dc197b592d