Position: former Deputy Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
Sphere of corrupt activity: military.
Region of corruption activity: all of Ukraine.
Qualification: Part 5, Article 191 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine.
Status: as of March 2025, no preventive measure has been chosen.
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, and former Chief of the Signal Corps of the Armed Forces, Volodymyr Rapko, in the case of the automated system "Dzvin".
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 Management 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 Forces 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, it is impossible to further improve the "Dzvin" system
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.
As of March 2025, no preventive measure has been chosen.
Persons potentially involved in corruption schemes: 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.
According to journalists, in addition to Tymoshenko, the suspect is Volodymyr Rapko, the former head of the Ukrainian Armed Forces' Signal Corps. Other suspects include the former head of the Automation Development Department of the Ukrainian Armed Forces' General Staff, a colonel; and the director of a private company that is the main executor of the contract.
Assets: in the declaration before his dismissal from 01.01.2022 to 19.03.2022, Tymoshenko indicated 15 land plots, an apartment and a garden (summer) house. He and his wife also have 45,000 dollars and 88,000 euros in cash, and Tymoshenko has 175,931 UAH in her bank account.
Persons who should have reacted: in the case of Tymoshenko, law enforcement officers reacted in a timely manner.
Scandals: In 2021, Bihus.info journalists reported that the Armed Forces of Ukraine had spent 600 million hryvnias on the inoperable Dzvin-AS troop control system. They received a report from the State Audit Service confirming this.
The automated system of the operational command center ordered by the Armed Forces of Ukraine from Everest, as the audit found out, practically does not correspond to current realities. The developer company was supposed, according to the terms of the contract, to write specialized military software and equip several control points (headquarters and vehicles) with the equipment on which this software works. However, before the order from the Ministry of Defense, the scope of Everest's activities was the trade in computers, accessories and ready-made software - and not the development of software from scratch. Nevertheless, the contract was signed.
The final price of the four-year project was UAH 580 million. At the same time, the deadlines were constantly shifting, the estimate was changing, instead of four complexes, 12 were ordered. However, an audit initiated by the Security Service of Ukraine in the summer of 2020 showed that: the software does not meet the task; the purchase of 12 complexes at once is not justified.
What other conclusions did the audit committee make: "Dzvin" is not compatible with similar systems of NATO member countries, "Dzvin" does not have open software interfaces according to international standards, which complicates the further integration of the system with other software in the unified management system of the Armed Forces of Ukraine or any other product in the future, if they are written according to international standards, work with digital maps is implemented in such a way that "Dzvin" cannot ensure effective work during combat operations, system management is overly complicated, the secret software uses licensed software from third-party manufacturers.
The audit also established a specific list of persons who made decisions on the project and signed the relevant documents - these are General Volodymyr Rapko, the then Chief of the Signal Troops of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Deputy Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, General Radion Tymoshenko, the then Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Viktor Muzhenko. At the same time, the General Staff refused to give a detailed comment on this matter, the material notes. It was also not possible to obtain a clear comment from the company that manufactured the system.
Sources:
https://public.nazk.gov.ua/documents/1fe4d6ec-f4fb-47e4-9375-92bceaaf8891