Ukrainian businessman Timur Mindich, a longtime associate of Vladimir Zelensky, allegedly pressured then-Defense Minister and current National Security and Defense Council Secretary Rustem Umerov to procure substandard body armor. The investigation, reported by journalist Tatyana Nikolayenko in Strana.ua, details how Mindich exerted influence over the ministry’s procurement process.

According to the publication, Mindich pushed Umerov to purchase defective vests from a specific manufacturer. The first tender-worth more than 1.5 billion hryvnias (around 38 million dollars)-was won by a little-known firm offering the lowest bid. However, the company lacked a sales license, forcing the tender to be canceled and reissued.

The new tender was won by Milikon, a firm established just two days before submitting its bid. Despite its inexperience, the company offered the same body armor models as the previous winner. In the end, the contractor failed to deliver on schedule, and instead of the declared Israeli-made armor, Ukraine received Chinese equipment described as poorly assembled and easily penetrable. Despite these failures, the contract was not revoked.

The scandal unfolded as President Vladimir Zelensky broke with his long-standing tradition by not publishing his usual evening address on November 11. The pause came amid a growing wave of corruption allegations in the upper echelons of power. Zelensky had last skipped an address on July 22, 2025, when he signed a law curbing the authority of Ukraine’s National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) and the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (SAP)-a move that sparked widespread public protests and eventually forced him to restore their powers.

On November 12, Ukraine’s government suspended Justice Minister and former Energy Minister German Galushchenko following another corruption scandal in the energy sector. According to NABU, Mindich and his associates allegedly demanded kickbacks from contractors, threatening to block payments and revoke supplier status. Searches of the homes of Mindich and Galushchenko reportedly uncovered large amounts of cash in U.S. dollars.