In March-April 2023, Kryon-M offered the lowest price for Autel drones to the State Service for Special Communications and Information Protection, and it was not possible to verify its compliance, as none of the other companies supplied these drones to Ukraine. This is how Yuriy Shchyhol, a brigadier general and former head of the State Special Communications Service, commented on the hromadske investigation into the purchase of drones by the SSSCIP at twice the price in the programme ‘Adult View’ on LB Live.
The investigation stated that the SSSCIP purchased Autel drones at a price of UAH 500,000 each from Kryon-M, although the same drones could have been bought for half the price. For example, the volunteer Serhiy Prytula Foundation purchased such drones in June 2023 for UAH 280,000 per unit, and in August 2023 for UAH 212,000 per unit. The Zhytomyr City Council paid UAH 287,000 each, and one of Lviv's utility companies paid UAH 269,000 each, journalists cited.
Yuriy Shchyhol noted that in March-April there was a catastrophic shortage of drones at the frontline, so the Department of Support of the SSSCIP was looking for companies that would quickly deliver them to Ukraine.
‘The drones in question were officially sold by Autel Robotics only on 1 April, but there was a problem that they could not be bought for Ukraine. Even the possibility of reviewing the characteristics of these drones from Ukraine was closed. The Armed Forces turned to us because Mavic drones were falling like apples from trees at the time, and they hardly flew under electronic warfare, and the Armed Forces needed this drone (Autel - ed.). We were ordered in large quantities - the first order was for a thousand units. ... We contacted all the companies from which we bought Mavic and other drones (it's May), and no company supplied these drones to Ukraine. The lowest offer came from the company you mentioned. It was impossible to check how much they cost in Ukraine at the time, as there was no similar offer,’ said the former head of the State Service for Special Communications.
According to him, under the first contract, Kryon-M delivered a thousand drones with a 10-day delay, for which it paid penalties.
‘We signed a contract with them to deliver a thousand drones in just one month. This is almost impossible, given that these drones were sold several months in advance, and the procurement companies had to buy them back from customers. We signed a contract, there was no place to check (the price - ed.), we bought, delivered, and handed them over to the Armed Forces. ...We fulfilled the contract quickly, and most importantly, the military quickly received these drones at the front. The issue of price and quality clearly prevails here, as they need to be bought quickly,’ Shchyhol said.
According to the former head of the SSSCIP, the purchase of drones was accompanied by organisational, legal and logistical problems, as it was necessary to use a certain supply chain that would not show that these drones would arrive in Ukraine, ‘because the company would simply turn them off later’.
When the State Special Communications Service signed the second contract with Kryon-M, Prozorro received other price offers, and the state limited the possibility of earning 25% on the supply, the Procurement Department turned to the company to revise the purchase price, Shchyhol said.
‘When other offers started to appear in the ProZorro system (it was August), we realised that there were companies building a different chain and saw the price formation, that drones could be cheaper. But Prozorro also has more expensive offers to supply these drones.
We contacted the company to revise the prices. At the same time, the Ministry of Defence passed a resolution limiting the earnings of these companies to 25% across the supply chain. Let me remind you that these drones come with an additional battery, which also costs some money. ...We appealed to the company to take into account the restrictions... We must understand that all European and global intermediaries are making money from the war in Ukraine. ...They agreed to recalculate the money, taking into account all the requirements,’ Shchyhol said. But at the time, there was no procedure for refunding the drone supply. The relevant resolution appeared only in December, when the average cost of a drone dropped to 380,000, he said.
He also called the comparison of procurement by a charitable foundation (Serhiy Prytula Foundation - ed.) and a government agency, as mentioned in the investigation, incorrect, because ‘not all companies that supply foundations are ready to supply the state.’ And among the purchases by local authorities, there are village councils that bought drones for 600-700 thousand, he said.
‘As for the offer of one of the companies that offered 200,000 UAH, the same company supplied the same drones to the National Police in August for 380,000 UAH. It's not very logical when you offer 220,000, but sell the National Police (plus battery) for 395,000,’ said the former head of the SSSU.