In 2023, the financial department of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine made 116 purchases of various goods and services totaling almost 10 million hryvnias ($268,513). Slidstvo.Info journalists analyzed the purchases and found that in the second year of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the General Staff is buying expensive Italian chess sets, Apple Watch smartphones, icons, and crystal tableware sets as gifts.
The General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine bought icons twice in 2023. The first such purchase was in June. According to the contract, the General Staff paid entrepreneur Nelya Ilchenko 36,500 hryvnias ($980) for three icons in silver decoration: “St. George the Victorious,” “Burning Bush” and “St. Nicholas.” The second time they bought four icons from entrepreneur Oleh Rubnikovych for 48,400 hryvnias ($1,300). These were copper-based icons with silver plating, gilding, and cold enamel of the “Guardian Angel”, “St. George the Victorious”, the “Mother of God of the Seven Arrows”, and “Our Lady of Kazan”.
The General Staff ordered the icon of “Our Lady of Kazan” for 13,400 hryvnias ($360), which was made in the Troica workshop. On the website of this workshop, you can find a similar icon for 2,900 hryvnias ($78).
Incidentally, at the end of 2022, the General Staff also bought five icons from Nelya Ilchenko for 35,900 hryvnias ($964).
In addition to the icons, entrepreneur Oleh Rubnikovych sold the General Staff another chess set for 39,400 hryvnias ($1,058). It was an expensive Italian chess set “Romans” and two different “Napoleon” sets.
This year, the General Staff also spent 68,800 hryvnias ($1,847) on 10 sets of crystal tableware.
During this year, the General Staff organized 20 different purchases of military award watches. A total of 3.9 million hryvnias ($104,720) was spent, of which 1.1 million hryvnias ($29,536) was spent on smartwatches. For example, on June 30, 2023, the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine bought 21 Apple Watches for 290,000 hryvnias ($7,787).
Slidstvo.Info journalists called Iryna Tarhonska, a member of the tender committee of the financial department of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, to ask why the General Staff needed to buy expensive chess sets and crockery but did not receive an answer.
Slidstvo.Info has sent official inquiries to the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine seeking an explanation for whom and why the military purchased such gifts.
