In August 2023, the Armed Forces of Ukraine was supposed to receive 55 HAWK UAVs, for which the Ministry of Defense paid 650 million in advance, but received only four, according to the Bihus.info investigation. The contract for 807 million was signed with the company of the family of ex-people's deputy Boryslav Rosenblat.
On the day of the promised delivery of 55 drones, each of which cost the state more than 14,5 million hryvnias, the manufacturer brought only 4 for acceptance. Moreover, the customer did not accept three of them, because two of them could not take off, and the third had problems with the camera .
It is noted that the complex gave the impression of being raw, unfinished. Therefore, the commission from the Ministry of Defense refused to accept the UAV.
The manufacturer assured that the complex was developed in cooperation with foreign partners and is made mostly of imported parts. The permission to use HAWK in the Armed Forces was granted back in 2017 — it was signed by the then Minister of Defense Stepan Poltorak.
And despite the conclusion of the successful passing of the decisive test, there was already information that out of nine attempts, only seven were successful: twice the same drone, presented by the Moldovan partners of UAS Drone-Tech SRL, fell due to a design feature.
Then the Ministry of Defense nevertheless signed a contract with a company to which the people's deputy was related.
Rosenblatt's partner Kostiantyn Pozhidayev gave his assessment of why the Ministry of Defense gave such a large advance for this development.
"He directly told me that that includes the 30% kickback from turnover," said Pozhidayev.
According to him, he stopped working with Rosenblatt after this offer.
It is noted that after that the company was divided: the production facilities remained with Pozhidayev, and legal control - with Rosenblatt. As a result, the conditions for collecting these drones, as well as their characteristics, have changed. Out of 55 complexes, only one was handed over on time and in normal condition.
Meanwhile, the Ministry of Defense has already agreed to postpone the deadline until October.
