Alongside state treason: whether largest supplier of oils to Ministry of Defense is connected to Ponomarov’s group
A few days ago, Deputy Defense Minister Dmytro Klimenkov boasted that the procurement agency of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, the State Logistics Operator, saved UAH 2.26 million when purchasing lubricants for the needs of the Armed Forces of Ukraine for 2025.
An analysis of the latest procurement of oils by the DOT shows that the largest tenders were won by Resource Oil A LLC, and it actually saved the DOT two million in one tender.
It would seem we could be pleased, but the fact is that last year's winning company caused a scandal and accusations that the DOT had favored one supplier.
Censor.NET tried to find out who this supplier is and whether it is related to the business of People`s Deputy Oleksandr Ponomarov, who is accused of treason and tried to find out if it is related to the business.
In December last year, 1+1 aired a story about the supply of fuel for the army.
It described how a 28-million tender was tailored for one company. The reason was that the DOT had incorrectly specified the tender classifier— instead of 'oils,' they indicated the category "mineral oil and distillates".
This supposedly small mistake, the incorrect code, resulted in oil suppliers—of which there are actually many—not seeing this advertisement in the system when searching by the "oils' code," the report said.
As a result, the tender was won by Resource Oil A LLC, the only company to submit a bid.
After the report was published, the DOT stated that it was a technical error.
In the case of the procurement of motor oil for M-10G2k tractor diesel engines, a human error was made by an authorised person of the DOT, namely, the DK code was incorrectly entered in the electronic field. It should be noted that the DK code was correctly indicated in the name of the procurement item and throughout the tender documentation. This mistake was discovered after the auction had already taken place. Since this procurement was announced through the Prozorro electronic system and, therefore, was publicly accessible to all interested market participants, cancelling the tender would have been seen as a violation of the rights of the participant who submitted their bid,' said the State Logistics Operator in a statement.
However, something else is more interesting in this story - the company's connections.
The fact is that Resource Oil A is located in the village of Hrebinky in Kyiv region, at the same address as the facilities of Ahrinol, a company associated with People`s Deputy Oleksandr Ponomarov, who was suspected of treason two years ago.
"Resource Oil A was established 29 years ago and is owned by Yuliia Slobodian and Yurii Tsapenko. Slobodian became the owner only in January 2024.
Before that, the company's beneficiary was Taras Potiiko.
Yuliia Slobodian is the wife of Serhii Slobodian, who, in turn, is the director of VS Trade 22 LLC. The second owner of this company, Serhii Valentirov, was the director of Ahrinol Trading House LLC.
According to the authors of the 'Khapuha' investigation, it is VS Trade 22 LLC that resells Ahrinol oils to Resource Oil A, as confirmed by tax documents.
However, Valentyrov denied this in a comment regarding the story.
'There is no need to search for something that doesn’t exist. I have already answered this question many times. We have gone through the necessary identification and checks. There is no reason for you to be so concerned now,' the former People`s Deputy stated.
Ponomarov was suspected of collaborating with the occupation authorities of Berdiansk.
After the occupation of Berdiansk, Ahrinol moved its equipment to Georgia and opened a plant there, while it received its primary materials from Russia. However, the company lost the opportunity to supply oils to the Ministry of Defence.
In the summer of 2023, the company's representatives even tried to contact members of the Public Anti-Corruption Council to return to the list of suppliers. At the same time, representatives of the Public Anti-Corruption Council under MoD, in communication with the then head of the Defence Ministry's Resource Provision Department, Maksym Hrytsenko, learned that the ministry had received a warning from the SSU that the manufacturer might be linked to Russia.
It should be noted that for many years, companies from Ponomarov's group were the monopoly suppliers of certain oils to the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
"The products of companies within the sphere of influence of OPFL People`s Deputy Oleksandr Ponomarov have held exclusive positions for years, as only their products meet the approved technical specifications for armored vehicles of the Armed Forces of Ukraine," said the investigation by Schemes.
It was only under pressure from People`s Deputies, just before the full-scale invasion, that this monopoly was broken.
"At least twice, based on my information, this issue was considered by the National Security and Defense Council when the NSDC drew the Ministry of Defense’s attention to the fact that the procurement of lubricants was actually dependent on a single supplier, which created significant risks," Serhii Rakhmanin, a member of the Defense Committee, said in an interview with journalists.
Judging by the analysis of the tender documentation, Ponomarov’s group has found a way to get back into the game.
According to Youcontrol and Opendatabot, Resorse Oil A has significantly increased its participation in tenders over the past few years. While in 2023, the company earned only UAH 26.4 million, in 2024 it earned UAH 99 million. At the same time, DOT alone signed contracts with the company worth UAH 66 million."
As stated in the response of the DOT to the request of the IACC (Independent Anti-Corruption Commission), RESOURCE-OIL-A LLC is at the top of the list of oil suppliers to the Ministry of Defence, with 9 state contracts, of which 8 were concluded as a result of simplified procurement, and 1 state contract was concluded without the use of open tenders and/or an electronic catalogue.
There is no evidence of any change to the delivery timeline. No operational and economic sanctions were applied to this supplier.
According to an analysis of the DOT’s tenders on Prozorro, among other things, the company supplies motor oil for M-10G2k tractor diesel engines to the Ministry of Defense.
DOT held two tenders for this oil in January and August 2024. In January, the expected purchase price was UAH 14.4 million for 200 tonnes. In August, it was UAH 28.8 million for 400 tonnes.
In January, three companies participated in the auction:
RESOURCE-OIL-A LIMITED LIABILITY COMPANY (with the offer of 12,498,000.00)
EURO OIL PRODUCTION LIMITED LIABILITY COMPANY (with the offer of 12 500 000.00)
ARIAN-TRADE LIMITED LIABILITY COMPANY (14,380,000.00)
The difference between the lowest and highest price was UAH 1.8 million. The price per tonne was UAH 62,490.00.
At the same time, only one company - the winner of the first tender, RESOURCE-OIL-A - took part in the auction in August. The oil was purchased at the same price as in January - 62,490.00.
I mean, everything seems to be fine.
But there is one important detail here. This is the very tender that led to the scandalous story on 1+1. On the website, there are remarks from the DOT about correcting inaccuracies for the company. One of them states that 'the proposal includes a file titled "10_DPS.pdf" which does not comply with the requirements of Annex No. 8 to the Announcement, specifically that the document is dated PRIOR TO the publication of the announcement for the simplified procurement.'
Of course, technical errors occur in documents. However, in the context of the fact that only one company submitted a bid due to a 'human' error and the price remained the same, the presence of a document dated earlier than the auction may indicate that the company knew about the tender in advance.
In January, DOT carried out procurement of 600 tonnes of MT-16P oil at an expected cost of UAH 21.6 million.
Two bidders took part in the tender:
EURO OIL PRODUCTION LIMITED LIABILITY COMPANY
LIMITED LIABILITY COMPANY "RESOURCE-OIL-A"
The offer of EURO OIL PRODUCTION was 10 thousand cheaper, but it was rejected due to the lack of documents confirming the experience of performing similar work. The winner was RESOURCE-OIL-A with a price of 19,390,000.00 (the price per tonne was 64,633.00).
In June, DOT carried out another procurement of this oil. This time, 100 tons of the product were purchased.
Two companies took part in the tender:
RESOURCE-OIL-A LIMITED LIABILITY COMPANY (with the offer of 6 900 000.00)
AVEX PRODUCTION COMPANY LLC (with an offer of 7 640 000.00)
The winner was Resource Oil-A. The price per tonne was 69,000.00.
It should be noted that in 2021, this type of oil was labelled as (Agrinol MT-16P motor oil) https://prozorro.gov.ua/tender/UA-2021-11-16-003809-a.
In tenders for other types of oils, we can see interesting nuances in the competition between RESOURCE-OIL-A and EURO OIL PRODUCTION.
For example, in the May tender for the supply of 200 tonnes of SI-4/SL; 10W-40 oils, the price of RESOURCE-OIL-A was as much as a hryvnia cheaper than that of EURO OIL PRODUCTION.
But the proposal of RESOURCE-OIL-A was rejected due to the lack of a number of documents.
In February, DOT held a tender for 70 tonnes of SI-4/SL; 5W-40 oils. Five companies took part in the tender. The offers of RESOURCE-OIL-A and EURO OIL PRODUCTION differed by UAH 100.
The offer of RESOURCE-OIL-A with a lower price was rejected.
Among the reasons are: "As part of the Participant's proposal, RESOURCE-OIL-A LLC (USREOU (Unified State Register of Enterprises and Organizations of Ukraine) - 23532573) provided a conformity certificate for VIPER FULLY SYNT.MOTOR OIL 5W40 CI-4/SL motor oil (Appendix No. 3 Conformity certificate.pdf), which does not indicate the actual indicators determined during laboratory tests.
In addition, the Tenderer RESOURCE-OIL-A LLC (USREOU - 23532573) did not provide a scanned conformity certificate of the product producer (in the original language) as part of the proposal, which certifies the quality of the proposed products, containing identification data and actual values of quality indicators.
Market participants, on condition of anonymity, said that such things can happen when companies have certain agreements at the auction, when they let their "own" people make money.
For example, the same actions are typical for food suppliers to the army, when certain companies have been retaining certain regions for years.
Dmytro Bihunets, Director of Risk Management and Compliance at DOT, in a conversation with Censor. NET, noted that the analysis of the owners of RESOURCE-OIL-A does not indicate any direct links with Ponomarov's group.
However, perhaps law enforcement should take a closer look at this story. Otherwise, it could turn out like in 2017-2018.
I would like to remind you that in 2017, 20 Ukrainian tanks broke down. One of the suggested reasons was the use of low-quality fuel supplied by Agrinol. However, the company denied these allegations.
And in 2018, a representative of the company from the sphere of influence of People`s Deputy Oleksandr Ponomarov offered a bribe of UAH 1.49 million for securing the victory in a tender for the supply of motor oil for the Armed Forces of Ukraine to the head of the Fuel and Combustible Materials of the Force Logistics Command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. The head was Oleksandr Zaiarnyi.
Can you guess the name of the Head of the Central Provision of Fuel and Lubricants Materials of the Force Logistics Command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in 2023? That's right, Zaiarnyi.
By the way, last year, the LFC (Logistics Forces Command) ordered 170 tonnes of AdBlue—a specialised liquid used to reduce harmful emissions from diesel engines.
Two companies participated in the tender. Their bids differed by only UAH 510, but the cheaper offer from Alkhim LLC was rejected, and the tender was awarded to RESOURCE-OIL-A.
On December 26, 2024, DOT purchased an additional 100 tonnes of AdBlue from RESOURCE-OIL-A, rejecting a more affordable offer due to the absence of a translated license from Germany.
Tetiana Nikolaienko, Censor. NET
