Oleg Davygora19:36, 13.12.23

In addition, this year the General Staff spent 68.8 thousand UAH on 10 sets of crystal tableware.

In 2023, the financial department of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine carried out 116 purchases of various goods and services for a total amount of almost 10 million UAH.

Investigative.Info journalists analyzed the purchases and found that in the second year of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the General Staff buys gift expensive Italian chess sets, Apple Watch smart watches, icons and sets of crystal glassware. 

It is reported that the General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces bought icons twice in 2023. The first such purchase was in June. According to the concluded agreement, the General Staff paid businesswoman Nelya Ilchenko 36.5 thousand UAH for three icons in Silver decoration: “Yuri the Victorious”, “Burning Bush” and “St. Nicholas”

The second time we bought four icons from businessman Oleg Rubnikovich for 48.4 thousand UAH. These were icons on a copper base with a silver plated coating, gilding and cold enamel of the “Guardian Angel”, “George the Victorious”, the Mother of God “Seven Arrows” and “Kazan”.

The General Staff ordered the “Kazan” icon of the Mother of God for 13.4 thousand UAH, which was made in the Trinity workshop. On the website of this workshop you can find a similar icon for 2.9 thousand UAH. At the end of 2022, the General Staff also bought 5 icons from Nelya Ilchenko for 35.9 thousand UAH.

It is noted that businessman Oleg Rubnikovich sold another chess set to the General Staff for 39.4 thousand UAH. We are talking about expensive Italian “Roman” chess sets, and two different configurations of the “Napoleon” set. In addition, this year the General Staff spent 68.8 thousand UAH on 10 sets of crystal tableware. 

In total, during this year the General Staff organized 20 different purchases of award watches. A total of 3.9 million UAH were spent on this, of which 1.1 million was spent on the purchase of smart watches. For example, on June 30, 2023, the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine bought 21 Apple Watches for 290 thousand UAH. 

(C)UNIAN 2023