How army found itself without heating pads in severe frosts: they ordered 600 thousand instead of 1.1 million, only 24 thousand were delivered
For 2025, the State Logistics Operator has contracted for 600,000 heaters, although the Logistics Forces Command requested 1.1 million.
This is reported by journalist Tetyana Nikolaienko in her article "Saved: Why the Ukrainian army was left without warmers in the bitter cold," according to Censor.NET.
MIK received a contract worth 9.4 million
As noted, the first 300,000 were purchased at the end of 2024. At that time, the tender was won by MIK. This is Oleg Mitrokhin's company, one of the largest suppliers to the Ministry of Defense. The company received a contract for 9.4 million, where the price of one warmer was 26.25 UAH.
"But that's less than a third of what's needed. The next batch of DOTs was put up for auction in September, with lots of 3.6 and 7.2 million. The auction was won by Privatny Operator Tylu LLC, with a significant price reduction. No, this is not a joke. Although it reads like trolling. The company was only established in 2024. And it does not supply its own product, but that of Imex-Max, the article says.
The Youcontrol system shows that the company is a supplier only to the State Logistics Operator.
It was Imex-Max that supplied the Ministry of Defense with heating pads in early 2024. At that time, each set was included in the contract at a price of 37.45 per unit (excluding VAT). The total contract was worth 8.9 million, and the tender price was more than halved from the initial 23 million.
At that time, DOT reported that it had contracted a Ukrainian manufacturer for the first time to supply personal heating devices (chemical warmers) to the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
"Previously, only Chinese-made heating pads were purchased, which were twice as expensive," the press release said.
The emergence of the "private rear operator"
However, since 2024, Imex-Max, also known as the owner of the Mamo trademark, has not participated in any Ministry of Defense tenders. Instead, a "private logistics operator" has appeared there.
"To capture the market, Privatny Operator Tylu lowered the price of a set of heaters to 18 hryvnia (excluding VAT) in 2025. It won the first lot with a price of 2.2 million and the second with 4.32 million. Formally, DOT saved 4.2 million at the auction. The warmers were to be delivered by December 10. But out of 300,000, only 24,000 arrived," the journalist adds.
The company complains about problems with electricity and signing the contract a month late, and promises to deliver another batch next week. But even if it is accepted, it will only be a third of the contracted amount.
